Centocor Inc announced a newly expanded research and development platform that will center on the discovery and application of innovative therapies to treat Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disorders (I.M.I.D.). Approximately 50 million Americans -- 75 per cent of whom are women -- suffer from one of a variety of diseases related to the immune system.

"The impact of immune-mediated inflammatory disorders on the national healthcare system is immense, especially when you consider as many as one in four patients admitted to hospitals in the U.S. suffers from an I.M.I.D.," says Ted Torphy, Senior Vice President, Discovery and Preclinical Development. "Centocor is committed to identifying the molecular targets that trigger these disorders and to developing new biopharmaceutical therapies, particularly monoclonal antibodies, that improve the lives of patients with these devastating diseases."

Moving forward, research and development efforts will include the exploration of common immune pathways shared by seemingly unrelated diseases with the goal of developing new therapies that may be effective across a number of disorders. This platform builds upon the knowledge and success achieved by the company with Remicade (infliximab), the worldwide market share leader among tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) therapies and the only biologic drug approved to treat both rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Since its introduction in 1998, tens of thousands of patients worldwide have been treated with Remicade.

"Given the recent advancements in understanding how dysregulation of the immune system contributes to the pathophysiology of a broad spectrum of diseases, we believe that new therapeutics will cut across the traditional specialties of clinical practice," says Torphy. "One of the long-term goals of our research and development efforts is to foster opportunities for cross-specialty collaboration that may ultimately change how patients are treated and by whom."

Among its 2,500 worldwide employees, Centocor has hundreds of scientists in locations in the United States, the Netherlands and Japan, dedicated to bringing new product innovations to market. In addition to ongoing studies with Remicade, Centocor is engaged in studying more than 20 new indications for its products including psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and spondyloarthropathies, such as ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis; eight new molecular entities (NMEs) in development; and more than 20 research programs that are directed at novel targets. Centocor's goal is to aggressively move NMEs into clinical development in the upcoming years.

I.M.I.D. are a group of disorders that share common inflammatory pathways and are characterized by immune dysregulation that results in acute or chronic inflammation, causing injury to the body. Injury can include organ damage, increased morbidity, or mortality. One underlying manifestation of this immune dysregulation is the inappropriate activation of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL 12, IL 6 or TNF-alpha, whose actions lead to pathological consequences. Disorders that are referred to as I.M.I.D. include, but are not limited to, arthritis, inflammatory skin conditions, transplant-related diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer, allergies, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and endocrine diseases.