So says Freda Lewis-Hall, M.D. who heads a women's health center for a pharmaceutical company. Pharmaceutical companies are targeting diseases that disproportionately afflict women. In addition, companies are studying more than 80 new medicines to combat heart disease, the leading killer of both men and women, with special attention to how drugs work in women. And pharmaceutical companies are doing gender-based research, looking at both the sameness and the differences between men and women. The payoff is that we can deliver better, more targeted medicines to women now, and in the future.
Osteoporosis provides a good example of how disease can affect a woman's quality of life.
Every minute, osteoporosis causes two bone fractures in American women. Fractures can significantly lower a woman's quality of life, decrease mobility and often lead to depression. The good news is that women can now choose between several different medicines to prevent and treat osteoporosis. I think we are really on the verge of a breakthrough in medicines for older people, and I am hoping that will translate into being able to prevent or treat more effectively all the major causes of death and disability in women. In MS, for example, the body attacks the insulation around key brain cells, often leading to crippling disabilities.