On December 2, the Aging in Motion (AIM) Coalition hosted its second annual meeting in Bethesda, Md., to discuss developments and advances in clinical research and treatment of sarcopenia.
The meeting’s theme was “Advancing Therapeutic Development for Sarcopenia: Efforts to Improve Clinical Detection and Endpoint Measures,” which offered updates for stakeholders on efforts to improve clinical detection of sarcopenia and the initiatives underway in the private and public sectors to identify measures for use as endpoints.
The meeting featured presentations from Thomas Travison, Ph.D., Institute for Aging Research, Jack Guralnik, Ph.D., M.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Zeeshan Butt, Ph.D., Northwestern University.
Dr. Guralnik, who presented on the progress of qualification of performance-based measures for sarcopenia, said, “I think this meeting was very productive. It brought people from a variety of disciplines together, including representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”
He added, “There was excellent discussion at the meeting about how people want a good, solid internationally-accepted definition of sarcopenia and the importance of getting the message out to the public and practitioners about this condition.”
In addition to the presentations, there was also a panel discussion that covered the topic of “scientific and regulatory considerations for developing meaningful treatments for sarcopenia.”
Dr. Eva Chin of Cytokinetics, who attended the meeting, said, “I think this is an ideal forum to bring people together to move things forward. It was certainly a thorough update on the specific definitions of sarcopenia and endpoints for assessing it. It was also a good opportunity to speak with the experts about the challenges in developing therapies for sarcopenia.”
