An interesting session during a major scientific conference attended by the authors in fall 2023 discussed the concept of disease modification (DM). It became evident that DM is something that medical treatments should achieve and there was also a clear demarcation from symptomatic(-only) treatments. An exact definition of disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) was not given but it was argued that DMDs should at least fulfill the following two criteria: (i) improvement of patient outcome and (ii) tackling of the underlying pathophysiology through a causal therapeutic approach.
