News

A unusually mild case of aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency, one characterized by exercise-induced episodes of involuntary muscle contractions, was described in a recent report. Scientists suspect that this atypical presentation was responsible for a substantial delay in the boy’s AADC deficiency diagnosis, arrived at when he…

Researchers say childhood epilepsy and mild attention deficits were effectively “hiding” a case of mild aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency in a teenage girl, according to a new case report. “In this study, we describe a 13-year-old girl with late-onset, mild, and atypical AADC deficiency diagnosed ‘by chance’…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in collaboration with Duke University’s Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, will hold a virtual public meeting on Thursday, Dec. 14 with an aim toward ultimately improving patient community engagement in the development of rare disease treatments — including ones for  aromatic l-amino…

Most people with rare diseases given an experimental therapy through compassionate use programs show clinical benefits, and most of these treatments ultimately end up getting approved, according to a review study. Based on these findings, the researchers argued that such programs — allowing certain patients with limited options access to…

About one in 10 medications sold in Canada have a patient support program provided by its manufacturer, and nearly half are for rare diseases. That’s according to a study in Canada that also found that patient support programs were offered more commonly for brand-name and expensive drugs. These programs, offered…

Skip Therapeutics is teaming up with the Sheba Medical Center in Israel to develop antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), a type of therapy that can change a given gene’s activity, for rare diseases with a genetic basis. ASOs can be tailored to address specific genetic mutations, offering a bespoke treatment…

Although AADC deficiency is characterized by low levels of signaling molecules in the brain that impair its normal function, the disease may also cause neurodegeneration, a study suggests. Understanding how the disease may result in the gradual dysfunction, and ultimately death, of brain nerve cells could open up new…

PTC Therapeutics will meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December to review the data the company intends to include in a regulatory application seeking the approval of its gene therapy Upstaza (eladocagene exuparvovec) for aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency. The meeting is expected…

The patient-centered healthcare data generation company PicnicHealth has acquired AllStripes, a platform that’s focused on gathering clinical evidence of people with rare diseases like aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency. With the acquisition, PicnicHealth aims to its expand patient-centered strategies intended to help in the…

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is offering a new education series to help patients understand how treatments are developed and encourage them to take part in the process, the goal being to create better therapies for rare diseases like aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency. Its…