Then & Now: Hereditary Angioedema
Emerging Science Fuels New Treatment Advances for Patients
No medications were approved in the U.S. specifically to treat HAE.
Several medications have been approved by the FDA in recent years to treat HAE by targeting the source of the disease.
Patients with HAE had limited options to relieve symptoms of an attack, and often were required to undergo invasive procedures to alleviate dangerous swelling.
Patients are able to self-administer new injectable medications at home to halt acute HAE attacks.
Scientists had little knowledge of the underlying cause of HAE.
New discoveries in the underlying cause of HAE have led to breakthroughs in both preventative and acute treatment options for patients.
Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare and potentially life-threatening inherited genetic disorder that causes edema (swelling) of the hands, feet, face, airways, and gastrointestinal tract. In HAE, patients have one or more genetic mutations, resulting in a variety of effects on the body, including impacting the body’s ability to regulate blood-based systems involved in disease fighting, inflammatory response, and coagulation. Patients with HAE usually begin experiencing edema between ages 7 and 13 and have acute attacks of symptoms 6-11 times a year on average.
As the condition is very rare, affecting 1 in 10,000 to 50,000 people, it is often under- or mis-diagnosed. Until recently, there were no treatments available to specifically treat HAE. A new report profiles the treatment gains that have been made over the last decade, as the underlying science behind HAE-induced inflammation has become clearer.