News

When it comes to rare diseases, one that definitely makes the list is spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress — SMARD,  for short. Hunter Pageau, a 12-year-old boy from North Haven, Connecticut, is one of only 80 people in the world known to have SMARD, a motor neuron disease…

The National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) kicked off its 70th anniversary with an advocacy effort on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. At the same time, the NHF launched its 2018 Red Tie Campaign  to raise awareness about Bleeding Disorders Awareness Month and reinforces its campaign to oppose the U.S. Congress’ efforts to terminate…

In his 10 months on the job, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is earning praise for his efforts to make clinical trials for new therapies more flexible and responsive to the needs of rare disease patients. From cystic fibrosis to epidermolysis bullosa, the FDA…

Workers with hemophilia are at a much higher risk of stroke, developing a joint disease, or needing a knee or hip replacement than the general population, Taiwanese researchers report. The study, “Risk of major comorbidities among workers with hemophilia: A 14-year population-based study,” was published in the journal…

At a time of unprecedented polarization in Congress, two U.S. lawmakers — one Republican, one Democrat — are stressing the urgency of working across the aisle to help the estimated 30 million Americans with rare diseases. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-New Jersey) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) spoke to more than…

Researchers report that the Medtep Hemophilia online platform helped hemophilia patients improve their adherence to preventive treatment, while increasing their quality of life and their perception of their illness. The study titled, “Effectiveness of the Medtep Hemophilia online platform for adherence to prophylactic treatment in haemophilia patients:…

myPKFiT for Advate, a free web-based software designed to personalize and assess preventive dosing regimens for some hemophilia A patients treated with Advate, is now available in the U.S. MyPKFiT for Advate is the first and only pharmacokinetic (PK) dosing software approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)…

A Phase 1/2 clinical trial on SB-FIX, an investigative gene-editing therapy for hemophilia B, is now authorized to enroll adult and adolescent patients in the U.K., Sangamo Therapeutics announced. Approval from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will make this the first genome-editing study conducted in Europe. Once safety…

The European Commission has approved Hemlibra (emicizumab) for routine preventive treatment of bleeding episodes in people who have hemophilia A with factor VIII inhibitors. The antibody therapy is designed to restore the factor VIII, which is deficient in hemophilia A. Hemlibra is being co-developed by Japan’s Chugai Pharmaceuticals, Switzerland’s…

Retrophin and the U.S. subsidiary of Britain’s Horizon Pharma will each donate $3 million over a six-year period to the Rare Disease Institute (RDI) at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., helping it to strengthen care available and expand as a “center of excellence” for rare disease…