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A 7-year-old boy with life-threatening epidermolysis bullosa has German and Italian researchers to thank for acquiring a new skin — and with it, the potential for a normal life. The team used genetically modified skin stem cells to grow new skin, which was successfully transplanted on 80 percent of the boy’s…

A potential gene therapy for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), KB103 by Krystal Biotech, has been designed an Orphan Drug by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to help it move along in preclinical testing. KB103 is the company’s lead candidate, and is intended to treat…

The gene therapy company Krystal Biotech has received a $700,000 equity-based award from the Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Partnership (EBRP) and the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation (EBMRF) to continue developing a treatment for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB). EBRP and EBMRF are nonprofit organizations dedicated to funding medical research in…

The biopharmaceutical company BERG was honored with a Partners in Progress Award from the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association of America (debra of America). The award recognized BERG’s efforts in developing new therapeutic strategies for epidermolysis bullosa (EB). “We’re honored to be recognized by debra…

Children’s National Health System no longer treats just kids. Its Rare Disease Institute, launched in April 2017, has partnered with the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) to become the first of many U.S. “centers of excellence” to look after patients with rare diseases, regardless of age. The effort…

More therapies are now available for the 30 million or so people with rare diseases in the U.S. than ever before, and millions of dollars are being invested in clinical studies that will test new ways of evaluating — and advancing — potential treatments, including the use of natural history…

As Congress begins debate this week to overhaul the U.S. tax code, lawmakers should leave the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) — and the tax incentives it offers pharmaceutical companies to develop therapies for rare diseases — off the table. That’s the message being pushed by the National Organization for…

New mutations in KRT5, the gene coding for keratin 5, one of the major structural components of the skin epidermis, account for previously unsolved cases of basal epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS), a study has found. Mutations in the genes KRT5 and KRT14, which code for keratins 5 and 14, are…

Abeona Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical developing new gene therapies for rare diseases, announced the opening of the first anticipated commercial gene therapy manufacturing facility in Cleveland, Ohio. The facility is named The Elisa Linton Center for Rare Disease Therapies and will have the capacity to produce advanced gene and cell…

Diacerein, which is a commercially available medicine used to treat osteoarthritis, also may hold therapeutic potential to treat blistering in patients with epidermolysis bullosa simplex type Dowling-Meara (EBS-DM). Initially discovered by a team of researchers at the EB House Austria, University Clinic for Dermatology at the Paracelsus Medical…

Fibrocell Science recently reported positive interim results from its Phase 1/2 clinical trial testing FCX-007 for the treatment of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). FCX-007 is a gene therapy product candidate, developed in collaboration with Intrexon Corporation, for the treatment of RDEB, a congenital and progressive orphan skin disease…

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on epidermolysis bullosa. The first part, about the complications caregivers experience with the disease, can be found here. Despite the recent clinical-trial failure of SD-101, a once-promising skin cream, efforts are building to better understand epidermolysis bullosa (EB) and…