News

Retrophin and the U.S. subsidiary of Britain’s Horizon Pharma will each donate $3 million over a six-year period to the Rare Disease Institute (RDI) at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., helping it to strengthen care available and expand as a “center of excellence” for rare…

ImmunoQure and Servier have joined efforts to develop a new therapeutic antibody that could benefit patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and systemic lupus erythemathosus. The antibodies will be targeting interferon-alpha (INF-α), a protein needed for immune responses against invading pathogens. Interferon alpha is produced at high levels in…

In recognition of Rare Disease Day 2018, Bionews Services — which publishes this website — will attend and report on three relevant conferences in the U.S. dealing with policies and programs of importance to patients and their families. The three are among 50 events in 32 states…

Pilocarpine is an effective treatment for mouth and eye dryness in patients with Sjogren’s syndrome, a Phase 4 trial from Chile showed. The trial compared the medicine to artificial saliva for 12 weeks in patients with primary and secondary Sjogren’s syndrome. At the end of the study, most patients in the…

A rock-painting contest in Las Vegas. A fashion show in New York. A 7,000-meter race around the Washington Monument that’ll coincide with a similar #Racefor7 event in Bengaluru and Mumbai, India. From Athens to Atlanta, from San Diego to Sydney, people across the globe will mark World Rare Disease…

A history of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria — linked to chronic pulmonary infections, but unable to cause tuberculosis — may increase the risk for primary Sjögren’s syndrome, according to a large nationwide Taiwanese study. “Although the exact disease mechanism behind [Sjögren’s syndrome] remains elusive, a variety of environmental, genetic and hormonal…

David Curtis Glebe, a retired 64-year-old public prosecutor now living in Millsboro, Delaware, knows he’s lucky to be alive. In mid-2013, while in Arizona, Glebe was diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer (PNET) — the same disease that killed Apple’s founder and CEO Steve Jobs. After three years of progress…

Treatment with epratuzumab, a B-cell targeting antibody, improves clinical outcomes of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in patients with associated Sjögren’s syndrome, research shows. But the post hoc analysis of the Phase 3 EMBODY trials suggests that the treatment fails in those with SLE alone. A post hoc analysis is one that…

High levels of certain immune regulatory cells – called T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells – in the blood are associated with Sjogren’s syndrome, researchers found. Scientists believe these cells could be used as biomarkers of certain autoimmune diseases. The study, “Human blood Tfr cells are indicators of…

A Phase 2 clinical trial testing the efficacy and safety of three investigational therapies — filgotinib, GS-9876, and tirabrutinib  — in adults with active Sjögren’s syndrome is recruiting participants. The study (NCT03100942) is being conducted by Gilead Sciences, in collaboration with Galapagos. It is expected to enroll 140 patients with active Sjögren’s…