News

After being diagnosed as a carrier of x-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) and losing her infant twin boys to the disease, Ashley Walker was driven into an episode of alcoholism. What she didn’t know then was that her liver was affected severely by the disease, which eventually resulted in an…

A treatment combination of two blood pressure medicines can help slow heart function decline in males with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a single center study suggests. These findings support international guidelines that recommend the use of cardiac medications to help stabilize heart function in DMD. The study, “…

A Phase 1b clinical trial evaluating Astellas Pharma’s ASP0367 is recruiting boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), ages 8–16, at six U.S. sites. The ongoing trial (NCT04184882) is evaluating the safety and tolerability of the investigational oral therapy, which is designed to improve muscle function in patients with DMD,…

AMRA Medical’s new MRI method was found to play an instrumental role in detecting changes in disease progression among individuals with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) in a recently completed clinical trial, according to the company. The new MRI technique, introduced in the Phase 2b ReDUX4 study, provides…

Long-term treatment with Viltepso (viltolarsen) safely and effectively prevents a decline in motor function in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) amenable to exon 53 skipping. Those are the findings of two-year data from a Phase 2 trial of Viltepso, an exon-skipping therapy being developed by…

Givinostat halted muscle shrinkage and fat infiltration in men with Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) despite failing to ease muscle scarring, compared to a placebo, according to top-line, one-year results of an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial. “We are very encouraged by the significant difference in muscle fat infiltration…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast track designation to LION-101, an investigational gene therapy that Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio) is developing as a treatment for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2I/R9 (LGMD2I/R9). This designation is given to therapies designed to fill an unmet need in medical care for…

“Can some of them get better, Daddy?” a young boy asks his father on the screen. By “them,” he means people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The boy, Theodor Taussig, who also has DMD, wants to believe he is getting better, and hopes as much as one can that…

At its first virtual investor event, biotech company Centogene set a bold mission: to cure 100 rare diseases within the next decade. A leader in the field of genetic diagnostics, Centogene used the June 22 event to present its strategic priorities, outlining its plans to speed the discovery…

Oral losmapimod, an investigational treatment for people with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), showed clinically relevant benefits over a placebo on multiple measures of disease progression and patient-reported outcomes after almost a year, according to data from the ReDUX4 Phase 2b clinical trial. But the therapy failed to reach…