Vedolizumab May Offer Hope for People with Colitis or Crohn’s Disease

One experimental drug that has been developed may be the answer for patients affected by inflammatory bowel disease that have been unresponsive to current medications. The drug is known as vedolizumab and is being developed to treat two forms of IBD – ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease.

Both of these diseases occur in the digestive tract and can lead to chronic inflammation, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding.  During new trials, researchers have discovered that vedolizumab had succeeded in cases where standard medications have been ineffective.

The drug was reported to be more effective for colitis than for Crohn’s. The drug may receive FDA approval for the treatment of colitis first. This is a potential new solution for the 2,000 patients that have either colitis or Crohn’s and have failed to see improvements from standard medications.

During a single trial, 47 percent of a group of 900 colitis patients given vedolizumab infusions reported a decrease in symptoms.