Target Therapy in Autoimmunity

Our research is inspired by the vision that systemic autoimmune diseases are no longer being a scourge for those affected. For similar reasons, enormous resources are being mobilised around the world, with limited success to date. It is true that a great deal has been achieved with the existing therapeutic capabilities; this option now seems to be largely exhausted. Despite an improved understanding of the pathophysiological processes, some diseases still lack any causal approach.

New therapeutic options often find their way into the treatment of systemic autoimmune diseases rather randomly through the transfer of substances approved for other indications, e.g. oncology or pulmonology. In addition, we are learning e.g. through the adverse effects of new substances in tumour treatment, where we may be able to intervene. Systematic approaches for new treatment mostly fail due to the lack of standardized study designs, the complexity of the diseases, less sensitive outcome parameters and the fear of reducing the existing immunosuppressive therapy.

We are fortunate that despite the many challenging results of clinical studies, there is still great interest in the evaluation of new interventional concepts. This ambitious motivation must be reinforced to facilitate and improve translation. In this context, early and continuous exchange between clinical experts and drug developers is an important step to the right direction. For this purpose, it is our aim to create an interactive forum, for which we laid the foundation during of the 11^th European Lupus Meeting in 2018. The first meeting was a great success for all participants; we experienced a lot of enthusiasm for this new forum. That is why we are looking forward to continue this exchange forum between the pharmaceutical industry and academia.

We invite to become an active part in this forum.