News

The first patient with epidermolysis bullosa has received treatment with RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals‘ investigational therapy RGN-137 in a Phase 2 clinical trial in the U.S., the company announced. RGN-137 is a gel formulation medication intended to accelerate wound healing when applied directly onto skin lesions. It is based on…

RaDaR, the catchy new name for the U.S. government-run Rare Diseases Registry Program, aims to help patient advocacy groups with limited resources build their own disease registries. The site was developed by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a division of the National Institutes of…

Gene therapy using CRISPR-Cas9 enabled precise correction in the lab of defective skin cells from a patient with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, showing promise as a safer and more efficient way to treat the disease, compared with viral-dependent…

A new company called Wings Therapeutics has been tasked with continuing the development of QR-313, an investigational RNA therapy for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), following a spin-out from ProQR Therapeutics…

With 250 rare diseases newly identified every year, scientists can barely keep up — even as the healthcare system fails millions of Americans whose rare diseases have already been diagnosed. That’s the warning from Christopher P. Austin, MD, director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Studies (NCATS) at…

Fibrocell Science and Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals are partnering to further develop the investigational gene therapy FCX-007 for the treatment of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). Under the collaboration, Castle Creek will support all development and manufacturing costs and will receive an exclusive license to commercialize FCX-007…

Note: This story has been updated to note that the gene that codes for collagen type VII protein is the COL7A1 gene, not the C7 gene.  Phoenix Tissue Repair’s investigational therapy PTR-01 was granted fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of recessive…

JCR Pharmaceuticals is asking regulators in Japan to extend the use of Temcell HS Injection to epidermolysis bullosa (EB) patients in that country as a wound healing treatment. Temcell HS is a mesenchymal stem cell therapy that approved to treat acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD), a severe complication of allogeneic (donor-derived) bone…

The topical gene therapy candidate KB103 to treat dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) has been granted PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). KB103 is a gene therapy candidate developed by Krystal Biotech to deliver a functional COL7A1 gene directly to skin cells using a modified and…

Touted as the South’s largest fundraiser for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), the third annual Believe in Brady event is set for April 7 in Houston, Texas. Benefiting the EB Research Partnership (EBRP), the fundraiser will be at Levy Park Conservancy from 4 to 7 p.m. It will…

A compound called rigosertib effectively suppressed tumor growth and induced selective death of cancer cells both in patient-derived cells and in mice with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and mice with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), according to a study. Based on these preclinical results, a Phase 1/2 clinical…

Patients with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), particularly those with delayed puberty, have a higher risk of osteoporosis — lower bone density — in the lumbar spine than healthy people of the same age, a study shows. The study, “Retrospective…