News

Nailfold capillary damage was found to be a predictor of mortality in scleroderma patients, according to researchers from Australia. The study, “The role of Nailfold Capillary Dropout on Mortality in Systemic Sclerosis,” was published in the Internal Medicine Journal. Microvasculopathy, which refers to the degeneration…

Major healthcare organizations are throwing their support behind an initiative called “Let MI Doctors Decide” intended to improve patient access to prescribed medicines for scleroderma and other autoimmune disorders in Michigan. “Let MI Doctors Decide” is spearheaded by the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA). Organizations joining a new…

Boehringer Ingelheim‘s product nintedanib (marketed as Ofev for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) has been granted fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of systemic sclerosis associated with interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). Fast track designation is granted to new therapies that…

Genetic sequencing and the speed with which it can help diagnose a child’s disease — in addition to revealing the genes that cause at least half of the 7,000 rare diseases currently known — was the focus of a discussion by three top New York geneticists. The Feb. 28 conference,…

iBio has selected a lead scleroderma treatment candidate — a molecule it calls the E4-Fc fusion protein. The company plans to continue developing it, with a goal of moving it in clinical trials in people. It also hopes to treat fibrotic diseases besides scleroderma with the molecule, which is…

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…

Using immunosuppressive therapy to treat interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with scleroderma (SSc) should be done carefully and with close monitoring, a study reports. The research, published in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, is titled “Systemic sclerosis associated interstitial lung disease – individualized immunosuppressive therapy and course of lung…

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…

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…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to allow Fibrocell Science to begin clinical trials testing its lead candidate FCX-013 for the treatment of moderate to severe localized scleroderma. This news comes on the heels of an investigational new drug (IND) application that was filed…