DuoCort: New chronotherapy for adrenal ins...(id25 cortisol replacement in all types ...)

Adrenal insufficiency in its untreated state is a highly deadly condition. Current therapy is long outmoded, with no major drug improvements since at least the 1960s.

Increasing interest in adrenal insufficiency during the past 10 years has resulted in studies showing premature death, compromised quality of life, increased cardiovascular risk and reduced bone mineral density among patients with adrenal insufficiency. The likely cause is the highly un-physiological glucocorticoid replacement delivered by even the best therapy available today. The large unmet medical need is to improve therapy by mimicking the sizable diurnal variation in serum cortisol that normally occurs. DuoCort seeks to do so by providing a so-called chronotherapy with once-a-day dosing to further enhance the physiological profile.

Link to the abstract in European Journal of Endocrinology
http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/1/119

About adrenal insufficiency
Patients suffering from adrenal insufficiency (cortisol deficiency) are unable to produce their own cortisol and need replacement therapy to survive. Adrenal insufficiency is a rare disease that affects patients in their active years and, because it is a chronic condition, they require this life-saving therapy throughout their lives. Treatment of adrenal insufficiency involves replacing, or substituting, the hormones that the adrenal glands are not making. Cortisol is replaced using hydrocortisone, the synthetic form of cortisol, and sometimes with other corticosteroids. There are different types of adrenal insufficiency: primary adrenal insufficiency also called Addisons disease, secondary adrenal insufficiency and CAH- congenital a
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