Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is 
characterized by chronic inflammation, a relapsing and remitting clinical course, requirement for 
lifelong medication and often, significant morbidity. While multiple effective therapeutic options 
exist for the treatment of IBD, a proportion of patients will either fail to respond or lose 
response to therapy. Advances in therapeutics, such as the gut-specific anti-integrins, now offer 
patients an alternative option to systemic immunosuppression. Anti-interleukin 12 (anti-IL-12)/IL-23 
agents offer new and effective treatment options for CD, while the oral small molecules now offer an 
oral alternative for the treatment of moderate-to-severe disease, previously requiring subcutaneous 
injection or intravenous infusion. Alternatives to pharmacological treatment such as stem-cell 
transplant and faecal microbiota transplant are also showing some promise in the treatment of both 
CD and UC.