Autoimmune diseases arise when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own cells, driven by self-reactive T cells and autoantibodies, leading to chronic inflammation and progressive tissue damage. There are over 100 known autoimmune diseases and the top 10 affect almost 15 million people in the USA alone (Supplementary Figure 1). Despite the introduction of innovative disease-modifying therapies, much work remains to address unmet needs for autoimmune diseases, including side effects from treatments, lifelong treatment dependency, waning effectiveness over time and resistance despite treatment cycling.
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Competing Interests
The authors of this article are employees of McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy that works with the world’s leading biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The research for this specific article was funded by McKinsey’s Life Sciences practice.
