News

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) has awarded a total of $9.9 million to 34 pioneering and innovative projects worldwide in its continuing efforts to support groundbreaking research for more than 40 neuromuscular diseases. “This latest round of grants is impressive in terms of total funding, number of grants awarded…

AbCellera Biologics Inc. has announced a collaboration with Fabio Rossi, MD, PhD, and Michael Underhill, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, to develop therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy-associated fibrosis. “It is immensely satisfying to see many years of…

Boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) on a long-term daily regimen of glucocorticoids are more likely to develop spinal fractures, have poorer growth and gain more body fat, than do those on intermittent use, a two-year study reports. But study findings also suggest that those…

Caring for a son with Duchenne muscular dystrophy is hard enough. Imagine how much harder it is when you’ve lost your other son to the same disease. That’s the uncertainty DeAnne Friar of Grand Rapids, Michigan, lives with day after day. Her first child, 20-year-old Colleen, attends Western Michigan University…

Wave Life Sciences’ treatment candidate WVE-210201 has been granted both orphan drug designation and rare pediatric disease designation for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Orphan drug designation provides Wave with seven years of market exclusivity in the U.S., tax…

Jiffy Lube is teaming up with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in the annual MUSCLE UP! campaign for the seventh year in a row. The campaign, which runs through the month of August, aims to help families affected by muscular dystrophy and other muscle-debilitating diseases. Customers donating $3 or…

Two small patient advocacy groups, Little Hercules Foundation and Team Joseph, are stepping up their joint Duchenne Family Assistance Program (DFAP). The expanded program, created last October, comes in response to the increasing rate of insurance company denials of life-extending treatments and medical devices for Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients.

The first patient has been enrolled in a Phase 2 trial evaluating the effectiveness and safety of MNK-1411, an investigational therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), announced Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, the treatment’s developer. The company also reported that MNK-1411 was…

Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects an estimated 1 in 3,500 male births. But Elizabeth Heller is an outlier even among her rare friends. The Chicago-born Heller, who relocated to Tempe, Arizona, three years ago, is one of only a handful of women with Duchenne in the United States. According to the…

Nicholas Johnson, vice chair of research and associate professor of neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, was awarded a $700,000 grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) to establish the Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) Clinical Research Network…