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Back in June 1984, a doctor calmly informed Pat Furlong that her sons — 4-year-old Chris and 6-year-old Patrick — had Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It was the first time she had ever heard those three words uttered together. The disease eventually claimed both boys, but that didn’t stop Furlong’s fight against…

A new international consortium based in Paris, and funded largely by the 28-member European Union, intends to speed the diagnosis of rare diseases, while also accelerating the development of treatments for the 95% of such illnesses that currently don’t have one. The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP…

Treatment with Exondys 51 (eteplirsen) significantly slows respiratory decline in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Âé¶¹Éç), including those with more advanced disease, compared to standard glucocorticoid therapy, an analysis of clinical trials shows. The study “Eteplirsen Treatment Attenuates Respiratory Decline in Ambulatory and Non-Ambulatory Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy 

For more than 20 years, Robert (Bob) Bennett was a steadfast leader and supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (Âé¶¹Éç). To honor his legacy, the Robert M. & Marjie A. Bennett Foundation has donated $500,000 to the Los Angeles-area Âé¶¹Éç Summer Camp. Located in Orange County, Calif., the…

The challenges Vesna Aleksovska faced when she decided a decade ago to help fellow Macedonians with rare diseases were so daunting, they would have scared off all but the most determined. At that time, few doctors in the developing country of 2 million — now called North Macedonia — had…