Written by:
Chronic diseases impact the lives of more than two billion people worldwide, reducing quality of life and increasing mortality, and presenting complex challenges for healthcare systems, communities and society. Yet, with the convergence of cutting-edge research, innovative therapies, and advanced diagnostics, we have the opportunity to transform how chronic diseases are managed and importantly change outcomes and lives. By integrating science, technology, and patient-centered solutions, we are delivering bold new approaches that aim to reshape the landscape so people can live better, healthier lives.
Transforming treatments for interconnected conditions
Chronic conditions rarely exist in isolation. Many patients face a complex web of interconnected health challenges, such as kidney disease paired with heart failure, obesity tied to diabetes, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiac events. Traditional treatment often focuses on a single disease, leaving critical gaps in care and missed opportunities to improve outcomes.
Through a thorough understanding of disease biology and by harnessing the power of what science can do, we are changing this paradigm by developing innovative mono- and combination therapies that target overlapping pathways across multiple conditions. Over the next decade, our ambition is to deliver transformative medicines, that recognise the interconnectedness of disease and provide holistic and comprehensive solutions. Our aim is to create therapies that address not just an individual condition, but the broader health needs of a patient.
Improving outcomes through early detection
Advancements in diagnostics are paving the way for remarkable progress in chronic disease management. Early and precise detection of chronic conditions is crucial to reducing complications and ensuring effective care. With the advent of digital diagnostic tools and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), healthcare providers are now better equipped to identify diseases with speed and accuracy.
Transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), a type of amyloidosis that often leads to heart failure, illustrates this challenge and opportunity well. This progressive, often debilitating disease affects hundreds of thousands of people globally,1-3 yet misdiagnosis remains common. Alarmingly, one in six patients with ATTR amyloidosis reports visiting more than five doctors before receiving an accurate diagnosis.4-6
With cutting-edge advancements like AI-powered echocardiography, we aim to empower clinicians to identify indicators—such as cardiac wall thickening that may be related to amyloidosis—that might have previously gone undetected. This innovation streamlines what was once a time-consuming diagnostic process, delivering faster and more precise results. We are also interested in efforts to identify a specific biomarker for amyloidosis, enabling the detection and measurement of misfolded proteins that drive the disease.
These advancements in early detection could allow healthcare providers to implement targeted treatments sooner, potentially halting the progression of the condition before it becomes severe and life-altering. In collaboration with an international expert steering committee and healthcare systems worldwide, our ambition is to halve the time to diagnosis by 2028 and double the diagnosis rates of ATTR-CM by 2030.
Moving beyond symptom management
Advancements in managing chronic diseases have enabled us to control symptoms, slow their progression, and, in some cases, achieve remission. However, these approaches often fall short of addressing the root causes or the complex interconnections underlying these conditions. We are shifting this paradigm by advancing therapies that understand the drivers of disease and modify them, providing patients with potentially more durable and transformational care.
For some autoimmune diseases, our focus is evolving from managing symptoms to targeting the underlying drivers of inflammation like the type I interferon pathway, to our ongoing innovation in CAR-T therapy, and T-cell engagers. By addressing causality—eliminating both B cells and plasma cells linked to disease—we’re moving towards potential groundbreaking solutions.
This shift extends to respiratory conditions, where biologic therapies are helping to bring advanced therapies to patients who have not responded to conventional treatments. By leveraging these approaches, we are accelerating the development of therapies that can directly target the lungs utilising smaller biologics, such as nanobodies and fragments, with the goal to broaden access to patients not receiving systemic biologics.
By understanding and targeting the drivers of disease, we have invested in and are harnessing a diverse range of therapeutic approaches from our toolbox of modalities—from small molecules to complex biologics to cell therapies and beyond—ensuring we can design and develop the best treatment solution to address the novel biology we uncover. Fueled by extensive human genetic and clinical data from our leading Centre for Genomics Research, we are discovering innovative targets and exploring untapped areas of biology to address the root causes of diseases. These efforts reflect our unwavering commitment to innovation and driving transformative outcomes for patients around the world.
A future defined by innovation and science
For billions of people living with chronic diseases, the path to holistic treatment and care is being defined by emerging science, technology, and collaboration. By uniting resources and reshaping approaches, we are no longer constrained by convention. We are innovating diagnostics to empower early intervention, harnessing cutting-edge science to develop transformative treatments to address disease causality, and delivering solutions that reflect the complexity of the human body itself.
Chronic disease management is about more than treating symptoms—it’s about creating lasting change and a different future for patients. Through collaboration and innovation, we are redefining healthcare, driven by a shared commitment to improving lives and shaping a healthier future.
