Margarida Maia, PhD, science writer —

Sarepta Therapeutics is acquiring from Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals the exclusive global rights to develop ARO-DUX4 and ARO-DM1, two RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic candidates in Phase 1/2 clinical testing, each for one type of muscular dystrophy. ARO-DUX4 is being tested for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and ARO-DM1 for…

A woman who developed heart failure due to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) was diagnosed and treated before she got pregnant, which led to a healthy outcome for her and her baby girl, according to researchers in Japan. The woman’s case was reported in “Successful Pregnancy Outcome With Preconception…

Specific genetic mutations in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) influence how long patients retain the ability to walk, even when treated with corticosteroids, according to a study that highlights the importance of genetic testing in predicting disease progression. These findings are relevant because understanding how fast the disease progresses based on…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted rare pediatric disease designation to MDL-101, an epigenetic editing therapy that Modalis Therapeutics is developing for LAMA2-related congenital muscular dystrophy (LAMA2-CMD) — a genetic condition that’s characterized by muscle wasting evident at birth or shortly thereafter. This FDA status…

AOC 1020, an investigational treatment by Avidity Biosciences that’s now called delpacibart braxlosiran, or del-brax, helped adults with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) grow stronger muscles and extend their arms farther than they could four months earlier. These are early data from FORTITUDE (NCT05747924), a three-part Phase 1/2…

An engineered transfer RNA (tRNA) molecule developed by hC Bioscience could be a fix for the protein that’s lacking in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), supporting the company’s ongoing efforts to identify a lead molecule that may treat the disease. In a study with a mouse model of DMD,…

After nearly a year of treatment, Viltepso (viltolarsen) was well tolerated and tended to increase how fast boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) could stand from a lying position, but not significantly more than a placebo, according to a preliminary analysis of a Phase 3 study. The main…

ITF Therapeutics — which will be responsible for marketing Duvyzat (givinostat), Italfarmaco’s newly approved Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) therapy, in the U.S — expects the oral medication to be available to eligible adults and children by this fall. For ITF, the U.S.-based rare disease division of Italfarmaco,…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Italfarmaco’s givinostat, which will now be marketed as Duvyzat, as an oral suspension to treat people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) ages 6 and older. Duvyzat becomes the first nonsteroidal therapy approved in the U.S. for patients with all…

It may take an average of 11 years before people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) lose upper body function and the ability to breathe on their own, according to a study by researchers of the HERCULES project, which set out to construct a natural history model of the…