Mena Boules, MD: The Challenge in Finding a Treatment for EoE

There is currently no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatment for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), leaving doctors, patients, and families to make decisions on how to best alleviate the symptoms associated with the disease, mainly dysphagia.

But help could soon be on the way for this patient population.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Mena Boules, MD, Executive Medical Director, Gastroenterology, US Medical Affairs at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, talked about why he is hopeful that patients with EoE may soon have multiple treatment options to treat the disease.

Boules said there has a push to develop treatments for the disease in recent years, mainly due to increased awareness of the chronic condition.

“I think there are a number of advances that are currently happening in the field of EoE, there certainly is a lot of attention because of how chronic and debilitating the disease has been over the years,” Boules said. “More and more people are becoming aware of it.”

Boules said clinicians often have to make plans with patients as to what works best for them based on efficacy and safety data in absence of an FDA approved therapy.

He also said the challenge in finding a treatment is because it is a disease that affects the histologic aspects and the structure of the esophagus and is a disease that encompasses a variable of symptoms.