News

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…

Avalglucosidase alfa, an investigational next-generation enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), leads to clinically meaningful improvements in respiratory muscle strength and mobility in children and adults with late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD), according to top-line data from a Phase 3 trial. The findings will be the foundation for applications that…

The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) recently created a Rare Disease Diversity Coalition focused on reducing racial disparities in the rare disease community. Getting a timely and accurate diagnosis for a disease that few people — sometimes even physicians — have heard of is challenging on its own merit.

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic won’t have much of an impact on cash available for new biotech startups, it has begun to cause delays in the development of gene therapies to treat a variety of rare diseases. That’s the consensus of industry experts who spoke in a May 26 webinar…