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…
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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…
The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) held its first externally led Patient-Focused Drug Development (PFDD) meeting on Pompe disease earlier this week. The July 13 virtual PFDD meeting allowed Pompe patients and…
The EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases has launched a nationwide National Burden of Rare Disease Survey to measure the full implications, economic and social, of living with rare disease in the United States. People with rare diseases know that the impacts of such conditions extend beyond just medical…
Transplanting blood stem cells modified to carry the GAA gene raised glycogen levels almost to normal across a range of organs, including the brain, and improved locomotion in a mouse model of Pompe disease, a study reported. These findings suggest that blood stem cell gene therapy, in which a patient’s…
Children with classic infantile Pompe disease on higher and more frequent doses of Myozyme (alglucosidase alfa) live longer without needing respiratory support, and have better motor outcomes, than those who start treatment at the recommended dose, a real-world study reports. Its researchers began treating all infants diagnosed at…
Measuring the urinary levels of a particular sugar molecule called tetraglucose (Glc4) could be useful for diagnosing Pompe disease, a study from France suggests. The study, “Urine glucose tetrasaccharide: A good biomarker for glycogenoses type II and III? A study of the French cohort,” was published…
The Alexion Charitable Foundation has awarded $1.1 million in grants to programs that support those with rare diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization recently announced. The grants will support activities that align with the foundation’s Rare Belonging focus, a set of funding priorities aimed at improving the…