News

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) has updated its State Report Card to make it more digitally friendly and added telehealth to its categories of rare disease policy issues in a nod to its increased use during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. NORD’s report card project began seven…

A significant proportion of people with hypoparathyroidism reported quality-of-life impairments, which were associated with more symptoms and an inability to work, according to a recent German survey study. A lack of understanding about the disease from potential employers, physicians, and others also may underlie these declines in quality of…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected Takeda Pharmaceutical’s proposed changes to address the risk of rubber fragments detaching into Natpara’s cartridge that led to the therapy’s U.S. recall in 2019. This treatment for hypoparathyroidism involves puncturing the medication’s cartridge rubber septum — a disk…

Daily injections of TransCon PTH can safely and effectively normalize calcium levels in the blood and urine and eliminate the need for conventional therapy in adults with hypoparathyroidism, according to six-month data from the Phase 3 PaTHway clinical trial. The long-acting hormone therapy, developed by Ascendis Pharma, was…

Patient registries are a hot topic of rare disease research and many organizations are taking advantage of this resource by signing up their patient communities and connecting with researchers. Eric Sid, MD, program officer for the Office of Rare Diseases Research (ORDR), said it is difficult to estimate how…

Symptoms of hypoparathyroidism were among the first signs of DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) in a man in whom standard treatment successfully restored calcium levels before surgery to remove his thyroid, which showed evidence of cancer, according to a recent case report. The report, “Newly Diagnosed Hypoparathyroidism as…

Horizon Therapeutics has launched its #RAREis Representation program aimed at increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion among patients with rare diseases. There are about 400 million people worldwide living with a rare disease; for many of them, access to diagnosis, care, and treatments can be challenging. Accessing better care depends on…

The European Commission has granted orphan drug designation to AZP-3601, Amolyt Pharma’s investigational therapy to treat hypoparathyroidism. Orphan designation is given to promising treatment candidates for life-threatening and debilitating rare diseases, those affecting not more than five in every 10,000 people in the European Union. The designation will…

Bionews, the publisher of this website, hosted a virtual panel discussion on Rare Disease Day 2022, taking a deeper dive into what it’s like to live with a rare disease, including conversations about advocacy, mental health, survivor’s guilt, treatment of minority patients, and more. The Monday event, “A…

A rare disease puts an economic burden on the patients, families, and caregivers that it affects, and will no doubt be an integral part of discussions on Rare Disease Day 2022, which brings international awareness about the more than 300 million people living with rare disorders. Part of that…