Poland is rolling out Biogen’s spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) therapy Spinraza (nusinersen) at a faster pace than any country that has approved it, Polish experts say. Since the first injection in May 2019, about 400 of the 830 patients in Poland’s SMA registry have either started taking Spinraza…

Russia has become the first of the 15 former Soviet republics to approve Biogen’s Spinraza (nusinersen) to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In its decision, the Russian Health Ministry noted that much more data exists on Spinraza’s benefits for patients 17 years and younger than for those 18…

Doctors have begun administering Biogen’s spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) therapy Spinraza (nusinersen) in Russia for the first time, the head of the country’s SMA patient organization reports. Forty children with the worst form of the disease — type 1 — began receiving the treatment in July under Biogen’s…

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted orphan medicinal product designation to reldesemtiv, a potential add-on therapy for patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Reldesemtiv, developed by Cytokinetics and Astellas, is meant to complement existing SMA treatments. It is a fast skeletal muscle troponin activator…

A renowned Belgian neurologist and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) expert has become a hero in Poland for helping dozens of Polish patients obtain early access to Biogen’s Spinraza (nusinersen), the first approved treatment for the disease. Poland’s SMA community says Laurent Servais never turns a patient…

Adding reldesemtiv to survival of motor neuron (SMN) restoration therapies — namely Spinraza (nusinersen) or the investigational SMN-C1 (an analogue to risdiplam) — can improve muscle function in a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), data shows. The findings were presented during the…

[Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of articles on Zolgensma and treatments for SMA, the issues they raise, and possible discoveries to come, all drawn from recent interviews with neurologists and researchers involved in this work. Others in this series can be found here. SMA News…

[Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles on Zolgensma and treatments for SMA, the issues they raise, and possible discoveries to come, all drawn from recent interviews with neurologists and researchers involved in this work. Others in this series can be found here. SMA News…

[Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles on Zolgensma and treatments for SMA, the issues they raise, and possible discoveries to come, all drawn from recent interviews with neurologists and researchers involved in this work. Others in this series can be found here. SMA News…

Within a lifetime, spinal muscular atrophy has leapt from a disease “nobody knew anything about” to a treatable — albeit chronic and still rare — condition. It is an “amazing” and welcome advance, say people who have lived with SMA for more than 20 years. “I’m kind of in…