News

As it does each September during Newborn Screening Awareness Month, Baby’s First Test is sharing information and stories that highlight efforts throughout the U.S. to bring attention to newborn testing. Baby’s First Test is a program of Expecting Health, an organization focused on pregnancy and newborn health. The…

Same But Different, a U.K. nonprofit that uses the arts to bring communities together, is holding a calendar photography competition to raise awareness for rare diseases. Under the theme “A Glimmer of Hope,” the competition is a means to “visually express the hope that exists for people affected by…

Children receiving enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for Pompe disease often experience immune reactions to treatment, presenting as rashes or severe allergy, sometimes after several successful infusions, a case series shows. While these hypersensitivity reactions can be avoided successfully with anti-allergy medications and longer infusion times in some patients, others…

Amicus Therapeutics remains on track to announce top-line data from PROPEL — a Phase 3 trial of AT-GAA for the treatment of late-onset Pompe disease — in the first half of 2021, and plans to seek regulatory clearance to start clinical studies of a gene therapy for…

Raremark, an online rare disease patient community, has launched a digital platform called Xperiome, aimed at streamlining the search for new medicines for rare disorders and incorporating more patient input into research. The goal is to help the pharmaceutical industry deliver innovative new therapies faster and smarter, the…

The EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases has launched a scholarship fund in the U.S. to support individuals with rare disorders who are pursuing personal goals through training and education. The initial phase of the five-year, $1-million #RAREis Scholarship Fund will include 32 scholarships — each totaling $5,000 —…

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of a rare disease film festival originally slated for May, its organizers set out to find a new way to bring the films to an audience.  Co-founders Daniel DeFabio and Bo Bigelow, who are both fathers of children with…

Combining exercise training with a high-protein diet improves exercise tolerance, pulmonary function, and quality of life among late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) patients taking Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa) for years, a small study found. The study, “Exercise training alone or in combination with high-protein diet in patients…

A Phase 1/2 clinical trial is recruiting adults with late-onset Pompe disease to test Audentes Therapeutics‘ investigational gene therapy AT845, the company has announced. The trial (NCT04174105) will be conducted at clinical sites in the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. It aims to recruit up to…

Treatment with Myozyme (alglucosidase alfa, marketed as Lumizyme in the U.S.) improves walking ability and may stabilize respiratory function in adults with Pompe disease during the first three years of treatment, according to a recent study. However, factors such as aging may explain the loss of benefits observed at later stages. The…