Top 4 reasons why we need to transform autoimmune disease research

Millions of North Americans suffer with debilitating, malfunctioning autoimmune conditions and there are more than 100 known autoimmune diseases, some of the most common including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, scleroderma and type 1 diabetes. 

The rate of autoimmune diseases growth is reaching epidemic proportions with studies estimating a 3%-12% annual increase in North America and 19.1% yearly increase in incidence worldwide. 

Top 4 reasons why we need to transform autoimmune disease research

More people are suffering from autoimmune diseases.

50 million

Americans and over 2 million Canadians are impacted by autoimmune diseases, even though these figures are likely underestimates due to the complexity of diagnoses.

1 in 10 individuals suffer from at least one of 100+ known autoimmune diseases and are more likely to develop a second autoimmune disease in some cases.	19.1% yearly increase in worldwide incidence of autoimmune diseases.
30% increase in MS worldwide from 2013-2022.	46% increase in IBD between 2006 and 2021.
107% increase in in graves’ disease	100% increase in Type 1 diabetes among adults over the past 40 years.
109% increase in Sjogren’s syndrome worldwide between 2000 to 2019	400% Increase in celiac disease in the U.S. over the past 30 years (doubling approximately every 15 years)
400% Increase in celiac disease in the U.S. over the past 30 years (doubling approximately every 15 years)	Indigenous people in Canada have a higher rate of Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Biliary Cholangitis (autoimmune liver disease) than other people groups.
300% Increase in the most common biomarker for malfunctioning autoimmunity (antinuclear antibodies) between 1988 and 2012	Teens Aged 12-19 have experienced a threefold increase in ANA (the most common biomarker for malfunctioning autoimmunity) frequency over a study period (1988-1991, 1999-2004, and 2011-2012)

Data gathered in part from National Health Council and Global RPh

Comprehensive autoimmune disease list

Autoimmune disease costs are growing

Autoimmune diseases are growing and individuals, taxpayers, and nonprofit organizations, employers and corporations are paying dearly to shoulder the cost burden of getting a proper diagnosis and proper treatments that won’t cause even more harm.  

$580,000 spent for every 1000 U.S. employees due to excess and potentially avoidable healthcare costs and lost work time linked to five autoimmune conditions	$27K cost in economic value per short term disability patient.    $82K employer costs per claimant.
183-287 lost workdays per year for employees on long-term disability due to autoimmune disease.	459% Increase in US spending on autoimmune medications from 2011 to 2021.This is in comparison to an increase in spending of 226% on oncology medications.
$2,200 to $33,500 Annual treatment costs (medical and pharmaceutical) shouldered by employers for just one employee with autoimmune conditions.	16x The amount employers pay in prescription medications for employees with autoimmune diseases compared to employees without these conditions.
54% Percentage of specialty drug use [LG1] in 2021 accounting for autoimmune disease treatments.	$3000/month monthly medication costs for rheumatoid arthritis.
$51.8 to $70.6 billion annual costs associated with just 7 of the 100+ known autoimmune diseases in the US alone.*	$4.7 billion Cost for biologics drugs (often used to treat autoimmune diseases) in 2022), which is 29% of total public drug program spending in Canada.
4.5 years average time it takes to diagnose a serious and common autoimmune disease.	4.8 average number of  physicians it will take to diagnose  – costing untold millions to governments, individuals and employers who pay for loss productivity.

Systemic barriers are hampering real progress in autoimmune disease research

We believe there are several key reasons why the science of solving autoimmune diseases seems stuck on the treatment treadmill and going nowhere. These include:

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Limited sources of no-strings-attached funding: Governments are cutting costs, nonprofit organizations are running lean, and many public and private funders enforce or promote a pre-defined outcome.

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Risk aversion in funding: traditional bio medical research funding structures, including a culture of risk aversion to novel research approaches.

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Treatment centric orthodoxy: Due to medical orthodoxies, current autoimmune disease research is focused on treatments and immune suppression, rather than working with the immune system, understanding root causes, and finding a cure.  

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Siloed approach: Fierce competition for bio medical research funding is stifling collaboration, and knowledge sharing, creating silos and needless duplication of work.

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Information gatekeeping: Visibility of scientific breakthroughs in top tier journals are highly gatekept through high costs, limiting the transfer of knowledge across disciplines. Consequently, many research teams are needlessly studying phenomena for which answers may have already been found or are currently being pursued.

These barriers underscore the importance of driving transformative, outside-the-box, innovative medical research and collaboration through non-traditional funding structures like Praespero.

*These figures don’t include the many indirect costs of these diseases, including lost productivity at work, presenteeism, higher childcare costs and reduced quality of life. 

We do things differently.

To learn more about how Praespero responds to these common barriers, read here.

Cancer research is part of the (auto) immunity research puzzle

Millions of people are dying from cancer. It’s tempting to throw all our resources at cancer research and cancer fundraising. Afterall, while autoimmune diseases affect more people, cancer kills more people worldwide than any other disease.

But Praespero researchers believe the medical science industry has been putting the cart before the horse by focusing on cancer when cancer and autoimmune diseases are deeply connected with the same mechanisms that are activated in both cases. 

An autoimmune disease research centre dedicated to examining malfunctioning autoimmunity as an umbrella cause is important.  Unlike cancer charities, or nonprofit organizations focused on one specific disease, an autoimmune disease research foundation, like Praespero, can empower a more holistic examination of these diseases.

By funding medical research collaboration across diverse research labs run by multidisciplinary experts (immunologists, neurologists, micro- and molecular biologists, biomedical engineers and medical doctors to name a few) and studying a variety of autoimmune diseases and cancers we can build awareness about root causes of autoimmune system disfunction. This leads to better, more long-term solutions – safer treatments, cures and prevention - of both autoimmune diseases and cancer.