Where are they now: asthma
From 2015 in the Herald and in StatsChat
Asthma could be cured within five years after scientists discovered what causes the condition and how to switch it off
As I noted at the time: nope, and nope.
Following up, the drugs in question, called calcilytics, continue to not be used to treat asthma. Hope is not entirely lost — a 2022 research paper says
these data firmly suggest that first-in-human studies will be feasible, desirable and achievable in the short term.
So it might still be true that this research eventually leads to useful treatments, but it certainly didn’t happen five years ago.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »