Nonprofit CureDuchenne is giving biotech Prosena $7 million to help its Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy treatment move along. CureDuchenne said in a statement Tuesday that the goal is to restart patients who had participated in other trials of exon-skipping drugs to begin receiving doses of Prosena’s experimental drug drisapersen. The organization said the money is also going towards development of experimental drugs PRO045 or PRO053. CureDuchenne estimates drisapersen could help 13% of Duchenne patients, and that the latter drugs could help up to 8%.
Boys make up the majority of Duchenne patients and are typically diagnosed by the time they turn five.
The National Genome Institute says few patients live into their 30s.
