Manufacturing issues are the latest problem for Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. to solve after last week’s disappointment in a phase III study to treat brittle bones. The U.S. FDA gave the company a complete response letter (CRL) regarding the BLA for its gene therapy to treat Sanfilippo syndrome type A, saying it needs more details and improvements made about CMC after having finished manufacturing facility inspections.

The U.S. FDA has granted orphan drug designation to Klotho Neurosciences Inc.’s secreted-Klotho (s-KL) promoter, gene and delivery system (KLTO-202 or s-KL-AAV.myo) for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Under a new licensing deal announced July 8, JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. granted Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. rights to its adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids for use in up to five of Alexion’s genomic medicines programs.

Solid Biosciences Inc. has announced approvals of its IND application and CTA by the U.S. FDA and Health Canada, respectively, for SGT-501, a novel gene therapy approach for the treatment of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), a highly malignant, arrhythmogenic channelopathy caused by mutations in the RYR2 and CASQ2 genes.

In yet another fail for the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) field, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s pizuglanstat (TAS-205) did not meet the primary endpoint in a phase III trial. The phase III Reach-DMD trial, a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind and open-label, extension study of pizuglanstat in patients with DMD showed no significant difference in the mean change from baseline to 52 weeks in the primary endpoint of time to rise from the floor in the ambulatory cohort of the study.

Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy is an inherited disorder that typically manifests in people younger than 40 years and for which only palliative treatments exist. For advanced cases, heart transplantation is the only therapeutic option.

Cellular atlases and omics studies, such as genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, have become key tools for identifying the diversity of all the elements that make up the cardiovascular system. These approaches help scientists understand how cells, genes and molecules function and interact in both healthy and diseased conditions, revealing critical points where targeted interventions could not only relieve symptoms but potentially reverse the underlying pathology at its origin.

The U.S. FDA has cleared Rocket Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s IND application for RP-A701, an AAVrh.74-based gene therapy candidate for the treatment of BAG3-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (BAG3-DCM), a severe form of heart failure.

Cure Rare Disease has successfully completed a pre-IND meeting with the FDA regarding its investigational gene therapy program for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2I/R9 (LGMDR9).

Using informed consent to do what Congress couldn’t, the U.S. FDA is flexing its regulatory authority to halt clinical trials that involve sending cells from American patients to China or other adversarial nations for genetic engineering and subsequent infusion back into the patient.