For more than a decade, Mount Sinai has actively participated in multicenter clinical trials researching medications that can potentially be helpful in this disease. While no treatment has emerged capable of reversing the disease, some hold promise of impacting the progression of the illness. Recently completed trials of medications used to treat Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, have successfully met their endpoints and will be seeking approval from the FDA to be marketed for this indication. Our Lung Diseases research team for IPF, led by Director of the ILD/ALD Program, Maria L. Padilla, MD, has engaged in many trials studying the efficacy of various agents including those being considered for submission to the FDA.

"IPF has been a long-standing interest of mine," notes Dr. Padilla, who has extensively studied the epidemiology, biomarkers/genetics, and comorbidities of IPF and managed a large population of patients suffering with this complex illness. "No drug has been approved for this disease by the FDA. If trial medications succeed in gaining approval, it will give hope to the nearly 180,000 patients living with this condition in the United States." While waiting for the decision of the FDA, we continue our efforts conducting other studies that aim at antagonizing specific mechanisms which may be very important in the development and progression of IPF.