Iranian scientist receives Germany Future Prize

Iranian professor Ardeshir Ghofrani has received Germany’s prestigious Future Prize for developing an innovative drug that can help treat pulmonary hypertension.

Ghofrani won the award jointly with his colleague Dr. Reiner Frey. They received the prize from German President Joachim Gauck in Berlin on December 2, 2015.

Pulmonary hypertension or high blood pressure in the lungs is a rare disease that can be extremely dangerous. It develops when the arteries leading into the lungs narrow, causing the pressure to rise and the blood flood back into the heart.

As a result, the heart gets overburdened, leading to breath shortness, dizziness, fainting, leg swelling and other symptoms.

"The patient will say he has difficulty breathing and that he feels weak - which can have all kinds of reasons. The cardiologist will say there's no coronary disease and the lung-specialist will say that the lungs seem to be working well. That's a lot of insecurity for the patient until he gets the news - which comes with a bad prognosis," explained lung specialist Professor Dirk Skowasch of Bonn University Hospital.

The new drug developed by Dr. Ghofrani and Dr. Frey allows patients to get pulmonary hypertension under control and improve their chance of enjoying a better and longer life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    . 
"Among those who participated in the phase three study, the survival rate over periods of one and two years has been more than 95 and 90 percent, respectively," said Ghofrani, who chaired the pre-clinical and clinical trials for the drug at Giessen University Hospital. "In the past, we could have expected rates of 70 and 50 percent."

The German Future Prize, Deutscher Zukunftspreis, is one of the most prestigious awards in Germany's scientific community.

Founded in 1997, the award is worth €250,000 and helps to identify projects which are of high scientific value, have concrete applications and are mature for commercial markets.

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