News

Cash-strapped governments across the 28-member European Union are struggling to control runaway healthcare expenditures — at exactly the same time as the promise of new but expensive therapies to treat rare diseases has never been greater. That’s the paradox faced by pharmaceutical companies as well as patient advocacy groups in…

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can catch signs of damage to the heart in muscular dystrophy (MD) patients earlier than traditionally-used echocardiograms, according to a webinar providing updates on the Parent Project for Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD)’s cardiac initiative. The presentation took place Dec 12, which is almost halfway through…

Close to 85 percent of boys and young men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy have never seen a mental health professional, says a leading neurologist based in Washington, D.C. Mathula Thangarajh, MD, of Children’s National Medical Center, gave a talk, “Behavior and the Brain in Duchenne,” at the recent…

WVE-210201, an exon 51 skipping therapy, has shown positive safety and tolerability results in a Phase 1 clinical trial in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Wave Life Sciences announced. According to Wave Life Sciences, the positive safety data supports moving the therapy into a Phase 2/3 trial, planned to start…

At 21, Hawken Miller certainly doesn’t look like a typical Duchenne muscular dystrophy patient. For one thing, unlike most boys and young men with Duchenne, Hawken isn’t obese — or even overweight — even though he’s been on steroids for years. That’s because he eats a balanced, high-protein diet with generous…

Until her son, Will, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy as a 7-year-old, speech pathologist Tiffany Cook had never heard of the disease. Today, it’s literally her full-time job. As family resource manager with the nonprofit organization CureDuchenne, Cook — who works from her home in Dallas — helps…

The University of Virginia (UVA) Children’s Hospital has been named a Certified Duchenne Care Center by Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), making it the 22nd such center recognized by the patient advocacy group for the quality and comprehensiveness of its neuromuscular program. UVA’s hospital is also the first CDCC with a prominent…

Hoping to make travel less difficult throughout England for disabled motorists, including those with muscular dystrophy, Muscular Dystrophy UK  and the government’s Department for Transport are working to bring accessible toilets to most highway service areas. Called Changing Places, the project is expected to be completed in the early…

For nearly half a year, Brenda Wong, MD, has led New England’s first and only interdisciplinary clinic devoted exclusively to boys and young men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The Duchenne Program at UMass Memorial Medical Center is located in Worcester, a 45-minute drive west of Boston. The clinic,…

Early safety and efficacy data from a Phase 1 trial suggest that Taiho Pharmaceutical’s investigational compound TAS-205 may hold the potential to treat patients with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy (DMD). The results were reported in the study, “A phase I…