Heart Failure: A Major Need and a Major Opportunity

While conventional drug therapies have improved survival of patients with congestive heart failure, the disease progresses relentlessly. Chronic heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization among people 65 and older in the United States. About 5.8 million Americans currently have heart failure, 670,000 new patients are diagnosed each year and more than 280,000 will die from the disease². Seventy percent of people with heart failure die of the disease within 10 years, and the five-year survival is less than 50 percent. The major causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease (CAD) – the most common form of heart disease and leading cause of death in the U.S. – hypertension and diabetes.

Heart failure is the only cardiovascular disease that has been increasing rather than decreasing in frequency. Heart failure leads to 6.5 million annual hospital days and an estimated $39.2 billion in direct and indirect healthcare expenditures in 2010. Recent advances in understanding the molecular basis of myocardial dysfunction, together with the evolution of safe and efficient gene transfer technology, have placed heart failure within reach of gene-based therapy.

Celladon offers a potential life-line for heart failure patients whose disease is getting worse on the best available medical care. Celladon’s products could dramatically lower that cost of caring for these patients and provide a better quality of life during the terminal stages of the disease.

Links

MYDICAR® 
American Heart Association
Heart Failure Society of America