Current Phase II drugs under investigation for the treatment of limb ischemia.

Introduction: More than 20 million people in Europe suffer from peripheral arterial disease and nearly 3% develop critical limb ischemia (CLI). Without any medical treatment, CLI has poor prognosis, resulting in limb loss and high mortality rate. Until today, no systemic drug is available for the treatment of CLI and the gold standard method of treatment includes risk factor modification and open surgical or endovascular revascularization.