Womens Health - Assessing the Need for a Targeted and Specialized Approach

Many of the diseases and conditions that affect mainly women are interlinked with similar root causes; however, placing all of the pieces of the puzzle together to ensure a cohesive management strategy remains a challenge.

Women’s Health is a collection of multi-factorial conditions and diseases that solely affect or are more prevalent in females. Many can have a serious impact on women’s overall long-term health and quality of life. There are a number of causes of Women’s Health diseases, ranging from hormonal fluctuations associated with specific points in a woman’s life through to psychological issues underpinning certain lifestyle disorders. As these causes and the courses and consequences of these diseases become better understood, the importance of targeted, specific treatment is increasingly being recognized, with some female-specific interventions now being investigated. In addition, it is becoming increasingly crucial to understand and act on the interaction between different diseases that primarily affect women, in order to ensure the most effective treatment approaches.

Female cancers, particularly breast and cervical, have led the way in preventive and therapeutic approaches, creating new paths for the management of other cancers and rendering some previously highly terminal cancers manageable diseases. The advent of personalized therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer was enabled through the identification of the HER2 gene and development of targeted drugs, such as Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Tyverb (lapatinib), and the prevention of cancer through vaccination has become the norm for cervical cancer. However, the same cannot be said for other female cancers, where, in spite of identification of gene mutations, targeted therapy is still in its infancy.

Despite significant advances in Women’s Health, there are still a number of unmet needs, particularly for therapies that address the fundamental causes of many conditions that are specific to or more prevalent in women. The fact that women are living longer means that they are encountering a wider range of health issues. It also means that there are higher expectations in therapies and that factors such as quality of life are playing an increasingly important role. As the Women’s Health environment evolves and expectations in treatment increase, easier and more straightforward therapies will be needed, and there is a particular need for drugs that either address several aspects of Women’s Health or work concomitantly with others to do so. Furthermore, it is recognized that many of the different conditions that affect women are interlinked and have common root causes; however, placing all of the pieces of the puzzle together to ensure a cohesive management strategy remains a challenge. The specialists who can do this are likely to be the main points of care for Women’s Health.

Scope

The report provides an overview of issues and trends in Women’s Health, including analysis of the current market landscape and key issues driving overall treatment decisions. In addition, the report offers a view of how Women’s Health is likely to evolve, including treatment practices and new approaches in the pipeline.

The report covers and includes:

A brief introduction to Women’s Health and the key diseases and conditions that affect women, including female cancers, psychological issues, sexual dysfunction and cardiovascular disease

Detailed analysis of why certain diseases affect women in different ways or in larger numbers, the impact that this has on overall health and quality of life, and current approaches to managing these conditions

Analysis of the pipeline for specific women’s diseases including an overview of how personalized medicine is likely to change how certain conditions are treated

An overview of how Women’s Health will be managed in the future, specifically looking at how specialists will adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure the holistic treatment of the “whole woman”.

Reasons to buy

Primarily, the report will allow clients to gain a strong understanding of the current landscape in Women’s Health, helping them to identify and clarify market opportunities and the competitive environment. It will also allow clients to:

Understand why specific diseases and conditions present differently in women and the implications for treatment and management

Examine developments in Women’s Health and how this has impacted on the incidence and prevalence of certain diseases, along with the overall prognosis and outcomes for women with particular conditions

Assess where the key unmet needs in Women’s Health exist and how these opportunities can be harnessed in future drug development

Understand the different issues and challenges facing companies when developing therapies for Women’s Health conditions and how these can most effectively be addressed to ensure future success