New drugs in development for cystic fibrosis are extremely encouraging and could be "really quite powerful," says Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D, in an interview with "All Things Considered" of Minnesota Public Radio.
 
The new director of the National Institutes of Health, Collins says that cystic fibrosis has created a "proof of principle" demonstrating that new therapies can be created for rare and neglected diseases. He plans to tackle this area of drug development as one of his top priorities at NIH.
 
Collins notes a promising outlook for those with CF: "There has been a steady and very gratifying increase in survival for this disease, going back over the last 50 years. Many individuals with CF are living into their 40s, 50s or even 60s."
 
Collins was interviewed during the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference last week.