Why do chronic diseases account for a large share of health care spending in developed countries?

In the context of translational medicine, chronic diseases account for a large share of health care spending in developed countries primarily due to the rapidly increasing life expectancy of these populations. As people live longer, the prevalence of chronic disease rises, necessitating care that is often prolonged, costly, and in many instances, largely ineffective.1

These conditions currently represent more than 70 percent of health care spending in most developed nations. The financial burden is further compounded by the difficulty of developing new treatments; the lack of useful surrogate endpoints—biological markers used to assess treatment benefits early in clinical trials—can extend the duration of research by decades. Consequently, translational medicine seeks to address these economic and clinical challenges by accelerating the incorporation of novel endpoints into trials and facilitating the validation of new therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.1