Immunology at AbbVie: in the lab with Lisa Olson

Lisa Olson: In my lifetime I’ve seen personalized medicine progress from a rudimentary concept to playing a central role in the practice of oncology. In immunology, we’re at the very beginning. I envision a day when a medicine bag will have multiple therapies for a disease and a diagnostic kit to guide the physician on which is best for each patient.

There’s a real need for personalized medicine in immune-mediated diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Approximately 30 percent of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients don’t respond to anti-TNF agents¹, so their disease is different. Something else is driving it, and we need to understand what that is.

LO: One thing AbbVie has done is team up with nine other pharma companies, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and several non-profits on the Accelerating Medicines Partnership.

Through tissue and blood sample analysis from people with RA and lupus, we’re hoping to identify differences between those with RA who respond to therapies and those who do not, as well as provide a better systems-level understanding of disease mechanisms in both RA and lupus. The ultimate goal of the partnership is to increase the number of new diagnostics and therapies for patients and to reduce the time and cost of developing them. 
 

What other strategies is AbbVie pursuing to help patients achieve remission of these diseases?

LO: When I walk through the halls of our Bioresearch Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, I am inspired by the stories from patients whose lives have been changed and transformed by our treatments.

With that in the back of our minds, we keep searching and experimenting to find the next big advancement in science that could lead to treatments for other diseases.

It excites me to say that our pipeline is full of exciting potential treatments that may help bring this vision to life.

Visit the Pipeline section for more information on AbbVie’s focus in Immunology.