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<pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:43:34 GMT</pubDate>
		<item>

			<category>Events</category>

			<link>http://www.myelin.org/en/cev/12</link>

			<title>Lorenzo Odone Memorial Walk</title>

			<description>&lt;div class=&quot;vevent&quot;&gt;
&lt;a class=&quot;url&quot; href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/cev/12&quot;&gt;
&lt;span class=&quot;summary&quot;&gt;Lorenzo Odone Memorial Walk&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
Start Date: &lt;abbr class=&quot;dtstart&quot; title=&quot;20090530T140000Z&quot;&gt;30-May-09 9:00 AM&lt;/abbr&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;
End Time: 
&lt;abbr class=&quot;dtend&quot; title=&quot;20090530T223000Z&quot;&gt;30-May-09 5:30 PM&lt;/abbr&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;
Speaker: &lt;br&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;
Event Details: &lt;div class=&quot;description&quot;&gt;This event will be held at locations all over the world.&amp;nbsp; If you would like to host a Lorenzo Odone Memorial Walk in your community on May 30, 2009&amp;nbsp; please contact us.&amp;nbsp; 
&lt;/div&gt;
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			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.myelin.org/en/cev/12</guid>

			<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:17:48 GMT</pubDate>

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		<item>

			<category>Articles</category>
			<link>http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?80</link>
			<title>[firstname] [lastname], The Myelin Project Newsletter 20-Jun-08</title>
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&lt;a name=&quot;articles&quot; id=&quot;articles&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Articles for 6-Jun-08 to 20-Jun-08&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;table width=&quot;100%&quot;  border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;body_copy&quot;&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?60&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Clinical trials of orphan medicines&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Brenden Buckley&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Thu 19-Jun-08 2:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;Brendan M Buckley Lancet 2008; 371: 2051&#8211;55  The development of orphan medicines presents many challenges, the main being to obtain sufficient evidence of effectiveness and safety in patients. Apart from the difficulties of funding clinical trials and recruiting competent investigators, the biggest challenge in trials on rare diseases is to recruit the right patients in adequate numbers. A rigid requirement to do studies that completely satisfy the needs of a classic design would prevent many... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?60&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?55&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Gene Therapy of Inherited Diseases&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Alain Fischer Marina Cavaaazna-Calvo&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Thu 19-Jun-08 12:30 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;Alain Fischer, Marina Cavazzana-Calvo  Lancet 2008; 371: 2044&#8211;47  Thousands of rare diseases are caused by a Mendelian genetic error. So far, more than 1800 genes associated with rare diseases have been identified (1) and, in many cases, their expression patterns and functions have been unravelled. This information is a prerequisite for development of a therapeutic strategy. Depending on the disease&#8217;s severity, and by assessing feasibility and treatment alternatives, gene therapy can be viewed... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?55&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?43&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Empowerment of patients:  Lessons from the rare disease community&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; S&#233;gol&#232;ne Aym&#233;, Anna Kole, Stephen Groft &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 4:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;  S&#233;gol&#232;ne Aym&#233;, Anna Kole, Stephen Groft    Lancet 2008; 371: 2048&#8211;51   The World Bank defines empowerment as the process of increasing capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.(1) WHO has described empowerment as a prerequisite for health and a proactive partnership and patient self-care strategy to improve health outcomes and quality of life among the chronically ill. (2) Empowerment is an action-oriented notion with... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?43&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?39&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Does orphan drug legislation really answer the needs of patients?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Marlene E Haffner, Josep Torrent-Farnell, Paul D Maher &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 2:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Marlene E Haffner, Josep Torrent-Farnell, Paul D Maher Lancet 2008; 371: 2041&#8211;44   Orphan-drug legislation (panel) (1) was intended to make drugs for rare diseases sufficiently profitable to bring to the market. Legislation in both the USA and in the European Union has been effective in meeting that goal. Since the passage of the US Orphan Drug Act in 1983, more than 300 products for rare diseases have received market approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2) This number... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?39&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?34&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Why rare diseases are an important medical and social issue?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Arrigo Schieppati, Jan-Inge Henter, Erica Daina, Anita Aperia &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 1:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;     Arrigo Schieppati, Jan-Inge Henter, Erica Daina, Anita Aperia  Lancet 2008; 371: 2039-41   Rare diseases affect a limited number of individuals (defined as no more than one in 2000 individuals in the European Union and no more than about one in 1250 in the USA), (1) but the number of disorders that fit this definition is very large (&amp;gt;5000 according to WHO). Therefore, the number of patients affected by a rare disease could be about 30 million in Europe and 25 million in North... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?34&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?31&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Alexander's Disease&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Margaret Weis&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Sun 15-Jun-08 10:00 AM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;  ALEXANDER&#8217;S DISEASE  Margaret Weis, Ph.D.  President, The Myelin Project  Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences  Texas Tech University Health Sciences  Center School of Pharmcy BACKGROUND:  Alexander&#8217;s disease is characterized by Rosenthal fibers forming in the astrocytes of the brain. Although astrocytes are not nerve cells (neurons), they help regulate the passage of materials from the blood to the neurons of the brain, and may regulate levels of certain important brain chemicals.... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?31&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?28&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) for the Leukodystrophies: Cerebral X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), Globoid-Cell Leukodystrophy (GLD, Krabbe) and Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Charlie Peters, MD&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Wed 11-Jun-08 2:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Charlie Peters, MD  X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD)  ALD is an X-linked disorder of very-long-chain fatty acid (VLCFA) metabolism. The childhood form usually starts at about 7 years. About 90% of these boys also have Addison&#8217;s disease. The posterior (back) part of the brain is the most common site for demyelination. Neurologic deterioration occurs in all boys. Deficits can include vision/visual processing, hearing/auditory processing, speech, gait, fine motor skills, and activities of... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?28&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;a name=&quot;releases&quot; id=&quot;releases&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Releases for 6-Jun-08 to 20-Jun-08&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;table width=&quot;100%&quot;  border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;body_copy&quot;&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?48&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Rare Diseases  What's next?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Candace Root&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 11:00 AM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Rare diseases: what&#8217;s next?   Rare diseases are life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases with a prevalence lower than one per... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?48&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?47&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Making rare diseases a public-health and research priority &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Candace Root&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 11:00 AM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Editorial  1972 www.thelancet.com Vol 371 June 14, 2008 Making rare diseases a public-health and research priority   On May 30, a... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?47&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?45&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Zymenex gets FDA approval of Investigational New Drug&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Mon 16-Jun-08 1:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Press release   Hiller&#248;d, Denmark , March 10 , 2008   Zymenex gets FDA approval of IND   Zymenex has received FDA approval of its... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?45&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;20-Jun-08 10:03 AM
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			<itunes:subtitle>[firstname] [lastname], The Myelin Project Newsletter 20-Jun-08</itunes:subtitle>
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&lt;a name=&quot;articles&quot; id=&quot;articles&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Articles for 6-Jun-08 to 20-Jun-08&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;table width=&quot;100%&quot;  border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;body_copy&quot;&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?60&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Clinical trials of orphan medicines&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Brenden Buckley&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Thu 19-Jun-08 2:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;Brendan M Buckley Lancet 2008; 371: 2051&#8211;55  The development of orphan medicines presents many challenges, the main being to obtain sufficient evidence of effectiveness and safety in patients. Apart from the difficulties of funding clinical trials and recruiting competent investigators, the biggest challenge in trials on rare diseases is to recruit the right patients in adequate numbers. A rigid requirement to do studies that completely satisfy the needs of a classic design would prevent many... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?60&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?55&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Gene Therapy of Inherited Diseases&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Alain Fischer Marina Cavaaazna-Calvo&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Thu 19-Jun-08 12:30 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;Alain Fischer, Marina Cavazzana-Calvo  Lancet 2008; 371: 2044&#8211;47  Thousands of rare diseases are caused by a Mendelian genetic error. So far, more than 1800 genes associated with rare diseases have been identified (1) and, in many cases, their expression patterns and functions have been unravelled. This information is a prerequisite for development of a therapeutic strategy. Depending on the disease&#8217;s severity, and by assessing feasibility and treatment alternatives, gene therapy can be viewed... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?55&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?43&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Empowerment of patients:  Lessons from the rare disease community&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; S&#233;gol&#232;ne Aym&#233;, Anna Kole, Stephen Groft &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 4:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;  S&#233;gol&#232;ne Aym&#233;, Anna Kole, Stephen Groft    Lancet 2008; 371: 2048&#8211;51   The World Bank defines empowerment as the process of increasing capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.(1) WHO has described empowerment as a prerequisite for health and a proactive partnership and patient self-care strategy to improve health outcomes and quality of life among the chronically ill. (2) Empowerment is an action-oriented notion with... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?43&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?39&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Does orphan drug legislation really answer the needs of patients?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Marlene E Haffner, Josep Torrent-Farnell, Paul D Maher &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 2:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Marlene E Haffner, Josep Torrent-Farnell, Paul D Maher Lancet 2008; 371: 2041&#8211;44   Orphan-drug legislation (panel) (1) was intended to make drugs for rare diseases sufficiently profitable to bring to the market. Legislation in both the USA and in the European Union has been effective in meeting that goal. Since the passage of the US Orphan Drug Act in 1983, more than 300 products for rare diseases have received market approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2) This number... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?39&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?34&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Why rare diseases are an important medical and social issue?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Arrigo Schieppati, Jan-Inge Henter, Erica Daina, Anita Aperia &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 1:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;     Arrigo Schieppati, Jan-Inge Henter, Erica Daina, Anita Aperia  Lancet 2008; 371: 2039-41   Rare diseases affect a limited number of individuals (defined as no more than one in 2000 individuals in the European Union and no more than about one in 1250 in the USA), (1) but the number of disorders that fit this definition is very large (&amp;gt;5000 according to WHO). Therefore, the number of patients affected by a rare disease could be about 30 million in Europe and 25 million in North... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?34&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?31&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Alexander's Disease&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Margaret Weis&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Sun 15-Jun-08 10:00 AM&lt;/font&gt; 
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;  ALEXANDER&#8217;S DISEASE  Margaret Weis, Ph.D.  President, The Myelin Project  Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences  Texas Tech University Health Sciences  Center School of Pharmcy BACKGROUND:  Alexander&#8217;s disease is characterized by Rosenthal fibers forming in the astrocytes of the brain. Although astrocytes are not nerve cells (neurons), they help regulate the passage of materials from the blood to the neurons of the brain, and may regulate levels of certain important brain chemicals.... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?31&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?28&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) for the Leukodystrophies: Cerebral X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), Globoid-Cell Leukodystrophy (GLD, Krabbe) and Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Charlie Peters, MD&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Wed 11-Jun-08 2:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Charlie Peters, MD  X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD)  ALD is an X-linked disorder of very-long-chain fatty acid (VLCFA) metabolism. The childhood form usually starts at about 7 years. About 90% of these boys also have Addison&#8217;s disease. The posterior (back) part of the brain is the most common site for demyelination. Neurologic deterioration occurs in all boys. Deficits can include vision/visual processing, hearing/auditory processing, speech, gait, fine motor skills, and activities of... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?28&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?48&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Rare Diseases  What's next?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 11:00 AM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Rare diseases: what&#8217;s next?   Rare diseases are life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases with a prevalence lower than one per... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?48&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?47&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Making rare diseases a public-health and research priority &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt; Candace Root&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Tue 17-Jun-08 11:00 AM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Editorial  1972 www.thelancet.com Vol 371 June 14, 2008 Making rare diseases a public-health and research priority   On May 30, a... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?47&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?45&quot; &gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Zymenex gets FDA approval of Investigational New Drug&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Release Date:&lt;/b&gt; Mon 16-Jun-08 1:00 PM&lt;/font&gt; 
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt; Press release   Hiller&#248;d, Denmark , March 10 , 2008   Zymenex gets FDA approval of IND   Zymenex has received FDA approval of its... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myelin.org/en/rel/?45&quot; &gt;[More Info]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot; color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Posted by&lt;/b&gt;: Candace Root
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			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?80</guid>
			<author>noemail@myelin.org</author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:03:23 GMT</pubDate>
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			<category>Articles</category>
			<link>http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?60</link>
			<title>Clinical trials of orphan medicines</title>
			<description>&lt;em&gt;Brendan M Buckley&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lancet &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2008; 371: 2051&#8211;55&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The development of orphan medicines presents many challenges, the main being to obtain sufficient evidence of effectiveness and safety in patients. Apart from the difficulties of funding clinical trials and recruiting competent investigators, the biggest challenge in trials on rare diseases is to recruit the right patients in adequate numbers. A rigid requirement to do studies that completely satisfy the needs of a classic design would prevent many orphan medicines from receiving marketing authorisation. (1)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the European Union, a disease is defined as rare if its prevalence is five cases or less per 10, 000 of the European population. (2) &amp;nbsp;Rare diseases therefore range from those with a low incidence and poor survival (eg, severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome), through those with a low incidence and relatively long survival (eg, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis), to those with a relatively common incidence but short survival (eg, pancreatic and renal carcinomas, myeloma, and glioma).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;For diseases categorised as rare because of short survival despite relatively common incidence, classic trial designs are practical, with large numbers of participants and hard outcomes such as survival. By contrast, some rare diseases affect fewer than 100 accessible patients in the European Union. For example, hyperammonaemia associated with N-acetylglutamate synthase deficiency was identified during a 20-year period from 1980 to 2001 in only 42 patients from 28 families.(3) &amp;nbsp;Many other rare diseases are prevalent to the extent of a few thousand people.&amp;nbsp; Under such circumstances, a trial based on classic frequentist design and requiring enrolment of hundreds of patients is impossible. Accordingly, the conduct, analysis, and interpretation of studies in rare disorders are constrained by the prevalence of the disease.
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Table: &lt;/em&gt;Orphan drugs with marketing authorisation in the European Union &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)&amp;nbsp; Disorders for which drug&amp;nbsp;is indicated&lt;br&gt;
2)&amp;nbsp; Marketing&amp;nbsp;authorisation date&lt;br&gt;
3)&amp;nbsp; Studies done in indicated disorder (number of participants)&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Agalsidase beta - Fabry&#8217;s disease&lt;br&gt;
May, 2001&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (15); phase III pivotal,&amp;nbsp;randomised, double-blind;&amp;nbsp;placebo-controlled multicentre (58); phase&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;III&amp;nbsp;open-label&amp;nbsp;extension (58)&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Agalsidase alfa - Fabry&#8217;s disease&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
May, 2001&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
Phase I and II (106)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Imatinib mesilate -&amp;nbsp;CML, CLL, GIST,&amp;nbsp;dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (see SPC for full list)&lt;br&gt;
August, 2001&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;CML: phase I (149); CML:&amp;nbsp;phase II (1027); GIST: phase II&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;(147); DFSP: phase II (12) &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Arsenic trioxide - Relapsed or refractory&amp;nbsp;acute promyelocytic leukaemia
&lt;div&gt;March, 2002&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II/III (52)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bosentan - Pulmonary arterial&amp;nbsp;hypertension, systemic sclerosis
&lt;div&gt;May, 2002&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II and III (174)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Pegvisomant - Acromegaly&amp;nbsp;with&amp;nbsp;incomplete response to surgery, radiotherapy, and somatostatin analogues&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;November, 2002&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II and Phase III (161)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Miglustat&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- Type 1 Gaucher&#8217;s disease&amp;nbsp;in patients for whom enzyme replacement unsuitable&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;
November, 2002&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
PhaseI/II pivotal (28); pharmacokinetic studies (82);&amp;nbsp;non-comparative study (18); &lt;br&gt;
open comparative study (36)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Carglumic acid -&amp;nbsp;Hyperammonaemia due to&amp;nbsp;N-acetyl glutamatesynthase deficiency
&lt;div&gt;January, 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Pharmacokinetic (12); retrospective patient data (20)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Laronidase&amp;nbsp;-&amp;nbsp;Mucopolysaccharidosis I (&amp;#945;-L-iduronidase deficiency)&lt;br&gt;
June, 2003&lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (10); Phase III (45)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Iloprost - Primary&amp;nbsp;pulmonary hypertension &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (76) Phase III (203)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Celecoxib -&amp;nbsp;Familial&amp;nbsp;adenomatous polyposis
&lt;div&gt;October 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (83)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Porfimer sodium - High-grade&amp;nbsp;dysplasia with Barrett&#8217;s oesophagus&lt;br&gt;
March 2004&lt;br&gt;
Phase II (48);&amp;nbsp;Phase III (208);&amp;nbsp;uncontrolled studies (86)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Mitotane - Advanced&amp;nbsp;adrenal cortical carcinoma&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;div&gt;April 2004&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;No new studies; fully bibliographic application&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Ibuprofen -&amp;nbsp;Patent ductus&amp;nbsp;arteriosus in preterm neonates&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
July 2004&lt;br&gt;
Dose range study (43); Phase II/III (131)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Zinc acetate -&amp;nbsp;Wilson&#8217;s disease&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
October, 2004&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
Dose-response (60); open-label, uncontrolled (148);&amp;nbsp;bibliographic (140)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Anagrelide - At-risk essential thrombocythaemia &lt;br&gt;
November, 2004 &lt;br&gt;
Uncontrolled and compassionate use (1446 patients assessable for efficacy)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Nitisinone -&amp;nbsp;Hereditary tyrosinaemia type 1 &lt;br&gt;
February, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Compassionate use (212)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Ziconotide - Severe, chronic pain in patients who need intrathecal analgesia &lt;br&gt;
February, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II (224); phase II/III (1001); phase III (800)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sildenafil -&amp;nbsp;Pulmonary arterial hypertension &lt;br&gt;
October, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Phase III (277) &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sodium oxybate -&amp;nbsp;Cataplexy in adults with narcolepsy &lt;br&gt;
October, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II (45); phase III (192)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Galsulfase -&amp;nbsp;Mucopolysaccharidosis VI &lt;br&gt;
January, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II with open-label extension (7); phase III (39); untreated historical controls (121); sibling study (2)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Alglucosidase alfa -&amp;nbsp;Pompe&#8217;s disease &lt;br&gt;
March, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II/III 18; phase II (21); untreated historical controls (168)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Clofarabine - ALL in relapsed or refractory paediatric patients &lt;br&gt;
April, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II non-comparator (61)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Dexrazoxane - Anthracycline extravasations &lt;br&gt;
July, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II/III open label (80)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sunitinib malate - Malignant GIST; Renal cell carcinoma &lt;br&gt;
July, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (55); phase III GIST (312); phase II RCC (63); phase III; RCC (106)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Deferasirox - Chronic iron overload requiring chelation therapy &lt;br&gt;
August, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (165); phase II/III (296); open label (&amp;gt;200)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sitaxentan - Pulmonary arterial hypertension &lt;br&gt;
August, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II (516)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Dasatinib - CML, ALL &lt;br&gt;
November, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I (92); phase III CML (911); phase III ALL (101)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Stiripentol - Severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy &lt;br&gt;
January, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Phase III (65); other (280)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Idursulfase - Mucopolysaccharidosis type II &lt;br&gt;
January, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (12); phase II/III (96); open label (12)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Rufinamide -&amp;nbsp;Lennox-Gastaut syndrome &lt;br&gt;
January, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Phase III (169)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Betaine - Homocystinuria &lt;br&gt;
February, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Spontaneous literature reports (202)
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Nelarabine - ALL lymphoblastic lymphoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;August, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase I (181); phase II (227)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;5-amnolaevulinic acid hydrochloride - Glioma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Open label (415)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Busulfa - Preconditioning for hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September, 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (103); paediatric (55)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Cladribine - Indolent non-Hodgkins lymphoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;April, 2004&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (122)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sorafenib tosilate - Renal cell and hepatocellular carcinomas&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;July, 2006&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III renal (903); phase III hepatic (602)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Lenalidomide - Multiple myeloma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;June 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III (704)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Eculizumab - Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;June, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II and III (195)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Hydroxycarbamide - Sickle cell syndrome&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;June, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bibliographic and registry data mainly&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Trabectidin - Soft tissue sarcoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Pivotal (266); pooled phase II (183)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Temsirolimus - Renal cell carcinoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;November, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III (626)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Nilotinib - GIST&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;November 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III (439)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;ALL=acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. CML=chronic myeloid leukaemia. GIST=gastrointestinal stromal tumours. SPC=summary of product characteristics.
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Patients&#8217; advocacy and support organisations might help by recruiting participants for multicentre or multinational trials. Major patient coalitions, such as the European Organisation for Rare Diseases in Europe and the National Organization for Rare Diseases in the USA, can help access patients and identify specialist clinicians. Web-based resources such as the US National Institutes of Health website and the European site by Orphanet allow potential trial participants to access information about planned studies.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Randomised, double-blind controlled clinical trials are usually thought to provide the best evidence from which to assess the efficacy of a medical treatment. (4) Trials should be powered to allow the testing of a predefined hypothesis of superiority or non-inferiority compared with a comparator treatment. Trial design should identify and minimise potential sources of bias and their conduct should be of a high standard, done by skilled staff , and involving committed participants. (4) Estimation of the number of participants needed for a trial of a particular treatment is conventionally based on a hypothesis of a mean difference between treatments (&amp;#916;), allowing for type 1 and type 2 errors. (5) For extremely rare diseases, this estimate might need to be made from animal studies because most of the population with the disease might have been included into the trial, making it a once and only chance study.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Usual power calculations to estimate the number of participants needed for a trial assume normally distributed responses to treatment and control, which is not always true for rare diseases. Therefore, great care should be taken to avoid heterogeneity in the diagnosis, stage, and manifestations of the disease so that the variance in baseline characteristics is kept to a minimum. Adjustments to power calculations to obviate the assumption of normality might well not be helpful, since they tend to increase the sample size. Often when designing a trial of an orphan medicine with a small accessible sample, it is helpful to estimate the size of likely effects that might be detected at a reasonable power (say 80%) and &amp;#945; level (5%). The investigator might then assess whether these effects need to be too large to make the trial feasible. Although use of a continuous variable such as the measure of difference between two groups should further save on sample size compared with event-based outcomes, it is often not useful in trials for rare diseases to use the surrogate endpoints that this frequently requires.&amp;nbsp;Fortunately, some treatments for some rare diseases are so effective that they are considerably better than previously available (control) treatments, so that the numbers of participants needed are small. For example, results of a trial of stiripentol (n=21) compared with placebo (n=20) added to valproate and clobazam in severe myoclonic epilepsy showed a response in 15 (71%) patients on stiripentol and in one (5%) on placebo (difference 66%, 95% CI 42&#183;2&#8211;85&#183;7%; p&amp;lt;0&#183;0001). (3) Here, careful diagnosis and selection of participants to avoid heterogeneity decreased the number of participants needed. (3)&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;There has been interest in other approaches to trial design to allow for smaller numbers to be entered into trials for rare diseases, (6) such as the use of Bayesian approaches, (7,8) N-of-1, (9&#8211;14) crossover, (10,15) sequential, (16,17) and adaptive (15) (eg, play the winner) designs.&amp;nbsp;However, although each design might have a role in addressing a particular question, none is a universally applicable panacea for the small numbers of patients. For trials without a very large response difference between treatment and control, these designs are not likely to greatly decrease the number of patients needed.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sometimes, despite optimum organisation of recruitment and the most sophisticated design to best use available patient numbers, a randomised controlled clinical trial in a very rare disease will be severely underpowered. However, as a basic principle, patients with rare diseases have rights to safe and effective treatment. The overriding role of medicine regulators is to protect public health by assuring availability of safe and effective medicines of adequate quality. Thus, the frequent but limited perception that regulators function only as a barrier (assuring safety, effectiveness, and quality) is incorrect. They also carry part of the responsibility to ensure that patients are not denied vital treatment. &lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;A clear tension exists between accelerating patients&#8217; access to treatments and the need to make the best possible scientific assessment of the risks and benefits of new orphan medicines. Best possible implies that, for each new orphan medicine, developers and sponsors make a convincing case that the evidence they present for its efficacy and safety is the best that can be assembled in a reasonable time. The helpful guidelines produced by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) (6) clearly establish that there is no absolute requirement for any particular kind of trial design when presenting an application for marketing authorisation of a specific drug. The practical application of this requirement to risk assessment of an orphan medicine is judged case by case, and investigators should always avail of the free scientific advice and protocol assistance provided by the EMEA before starting a trial. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;In some instances, orphan medicines might have been used extensively in clinical practice for decades&#8212;for example, trientine for Wilson&#8217;s disease, (18) caffeine for neonatal apnoea of prematurity, (19) and mitotane for adrenal cortical carcinoma. (20,21) Substantial published studies exists for these drugs, which mostly consist of case reports and clinical trials, many of which were probably not done to Good Clinical Practice standards. However, despite obvious limitations, a systematic review of published work can add substantially to the risk&#8211;benefit assessment. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;The EMEA lists a detailed summary of all evidence presented to them to support applications for marketing approval (as European Public Assessment Reports or EPARs) on their website. These reports show that the European regulator has taken an eclectic approach to the levels of acceptable evidence for licensing orphan products (table). They show that studies supporting marketing authorisation for orphan drugs consisted of numbers of treated patients ranging from as few as 12 to several hundred. In the instance of one drug, there was complete reliance on reported data only and no new studies were done. For all other drugs, at least one clinical study was included. For carglumic acid, only one clinical study (a pharmacokinetic one) was done. This study included only 12 volunteers, but there was also a retrospective patient data collection (n=20) and a commitment to collect further data and follow-up. Although most marketing authorisations for oncologyrelated orphan drugs were granted on the basis of large studies in commonly incident diseases, most of those for genetic disorders were based on much smaller studies, including some in which no new trials were done (table).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Difficult as it is to establish effectiveness of an orphan treatment, it is usually more challenging to establish the limits of its safety beyond that shown in non-clinical studies. Clearly, the number of patients included in all studies presented for any given authorised orphan drug is far too small to allow reliable detection of adverse effects that occur with a frequency of less than about 1%&amp;nbsp; (a sample size of 500&#8211;1000 would be needed). Therefore, knowledge related to the safety of an orphan medicine will usually be gained only after it has entered into the market and into widespread clinical use. Hence, a prospectively designed, highly structured programme of postmarketing surveillance is essential to continuously assess safety of all orphan medicines.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Medicines might receive approval in the European Union under any of three different headings: normal approval, approval under exceptional circumstances, and conditional approval. Approval under exceptional circumstances might be given when comprehensive data cannot be provided, for instance because of the rarity of the disease or because of ethical barriers. Such an approval is granted on the basis of specific obligations on the licence holder to inform the regulator about safety and efficacy with the passage of time. EMEA might grant conditional approval for 1 year, renewable, when the data set submitted is incomplete, but there is a positive risk&#8211;benefit balance evident from that available as long as the licence holder provides comprehensive clinical data after approval. Assessment of the benefits and risks of this approach will take some time to emerge. &lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Scientists, clinicians, industry, and regulators should help in the development of safe and effective treatments for patients with rare diseases. It is not easy to satisfy this obligation without developing new ways to allow assessment of orphan medicines in patients. Novel statistical techniques and recruitment that are more efficient will assist, but will not solve the fundamental truism that rare diseases yield few patients for clinical trials. Therefore, regulators do the best that they can with the limited information available when attempting to assess risks and benefits for orphan drugs. The prospective operation of systematic, coordinated, and comprehensive postmarketing surveillance of all orphan drugs might validate the eclectic approach taken so far.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lancet &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2008; 371: 2051&#8211;55&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;European Centre for Clinical Trials in Rare Diseases&lt;br&gt;
University College Cork &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Cork, Ireland&amp;nbsp; &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;(Prof B M Buckley FRCPI)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Correspondence to: &lt;br&gt;
Prof Brendan Buckley&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;European Centre for Clinical Trials in Rare Diseases&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;University College Cork&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Lancaster Hall, 6 &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Little Hanover Street&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Cork, Ireland&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;b.buckley@ucc.ie&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;For more on clinical trials&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;see&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.clinicaltrials.gov&quot;&gt;http://www.clinicaltrials.gov&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;
for more on EPARs see&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.emea.europa.eu/htms/human/epar/a.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.emea.europa.eu/htms/human/epar/a.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
Conflict of interest statement&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;BMB is chairman of the Irish Medicines Board&#8217;s Advisory Committee on Human Medicines and a director of the board.&amp;nbsp;He was formerly a member of the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of EMEA. He has received research funding on behalf of his Centre from the Government of Ireland, the Commission of the European Union, Baxter, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi -Aventis, and Univar. He has received speaker fees and assistance with travel and accommodation for scientific purposes from AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer, and Sanofi -Aventis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The&amp;nbsp;Myelin Project wants to thank Dr. Astrid James and the publisher of The Lance for granting us permission to post these articles. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;1 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lilford RJ, Thornton JG, Braunholtz D. Clinical trials and rare diseases: a way out of a conundrum. &lt;em&gt;BMJ &lt;/em&gt;1995; &lt;strong&gt;311: &lt;/strong&gt;1621&#8211;25. &lt;br&gt;
2 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;European Union. Regulation (EC) No 141/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Orphan Medicinal Products of 16 December 1999 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 847/2000 of 27 April 2000. &lt;em&gt;Off J Euro Comm &lt;/em&gt;2000; &lt;strong&gt;43: &lt;/strong&gt;L103/5&#8211;8. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;3 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Chiron C, Marchand MC, Tran A, et al, for the STICLO study group. Stiripentol in severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy: a randomised placebo-controlled syndrome-dedicated trial. &lt;em&gt;Lancet &lt;/em&gt;2000; &lt;strong&gt;356: &lt;/strong&gt;1638&#8211;42.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;4 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Anon. Note for guidance on statistical principles in clinical trials. London: EMEA, 1998. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;5 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Friedman LM, Fuberg CD, DeMets DL. Fundamentals of clinical trials 3rd edn. Kansas City: ACCP, 1998.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;6 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use. Guideline on clinical trials in small populations. London: EMEA&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;2006.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;7 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Berry D. A guide to drug discovery: Bayesian clinical trials. &lt;em&gt;Nat Rev Drug Dis &lt;/em&gt;2006; &lt;strong&gt;5: &lt;/strong&gt;27&#8211;36.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;8 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Freedman LS, Spiegelhalter DJ, Parmar MK. The what, why and how of Bayesian clinical trials monitoring. &lt;em&gt;Stat Med &lt;/em&gt;1994; &lt;strong&gt;13: &lt;/strong&gt;1371&#8211;83.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;9 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sung L, Feldman BM. N-of-1 trials: innovative methods to evaluate complementary and alternative medicines in pediatric cancer. &lt;em&gt;J Pediatr Hematol Oncol &lt;/em&gt;2006; &lt;strong&gt;28: &lt;/strong&gt;263&#8211;66.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;10 &amp;nbsp;Jones BKM. Design and analysis of cross-over trials. 2nd edn. Monographs on statistics and applied probability. London: CRC Press, 2003.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;11 &amp;nbsp;Suri R, Metcalfe C, Wallis C, Bush A. Predicting response to rhDNase and hypertonic saline in children with cystic fi brosis. &lt;em&gt;Pediatr Pulmonol &lt;/em&gt;2004; &lt;strong&gt;37: &lt;/strong&gt;305&#8211;10.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;12 &amp;nbsp;Backman CL, Harris SR. Case studies, single-subject research, and&amp;nbsp;N-of-1 randomized trials: comparisons and contrasts. &lt;em&gt;Am J Phys Med Rehabil &lt;/em&gt;1999; &lt;strong&gt;78: &lt;/strong&gt;170&#8211;76.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;13 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Cook DJ. Randomized trials in single subjects: the N of 1 study. &lt;em&gt;Psychopharmacol Bull &lt;/em&gt;1996; &lt;strong&gt;32: &lt;/strong&gt;363&#8211;67.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;14 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Bollert FG, Paton JY, Marshall TG, Calvert J, Greening AP, Innes JA; Scottish Cystic Fibrosis Group. Recombinant DNase in cystic fi brosis: a protocol for targeted introduction through n-of-1 trials. &lt;em&gt;Eur Respir J &lt;/em&gt;1999; &lt;strong&gt;13: &lt;/strong&gt;107&#8211;13.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;15 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lagakos SW. Clinical trials and rare diseases. &lt;em&gt;N Engl J Med &lt;/em&gt;2003; &lt;strong&gt;348: &lt;/strong&gt;2455&#8211;56.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;16 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Stallard N, Todd S. Sequential designs for phase III clinical trials incorporating treatment selection. &lt;em&gt;Stat Med &lt;/em&gt;2003; &lt;strong&gt;22: &lt;/strong&gt;689&#8211;703.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;17 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Whitehead J. The design and analysis of sequential clinical trials. 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley, 1997.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;18 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Walshe JM. The management of Wilson&#8217;s disease with triethylene tetramine 2HC1 (Trien 2HC1). &lt;em&gt;Prog Clin Biol Res &lt;/em&gt;1979; &lt;strong&gt;34: &lt;/strong&gt;271&#8211;80.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;19 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Gunn TR, Metrakos K, Riley P, Willis D, Aranda JV. Sequelae of caff eine treatment in preterm infants with apnea. &lt;em&gt;J Pediatr &lt;/em&gt;1979; &lt;strong&gt;94: &lt;/strong&gt;106&#8211;9.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;20 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lubitz JA, Freeman L, Okun R. Mitotane use in inoperable adrenal cortical carcinoma. &lt;em&gt;JAMA &lt;/em&gt;1973; &lt;strong&gt;223: &lt;/strong&gt;1109&#8211;12. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;21 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Schein PS. Chemotherapeutic management of the hormone-secreting endocrine malignancies. &lt;em&gt;Cancer &lt;/em&gt;1972; &lt;strong&gt;30: &lt;/strong&gt;1616&#8211;26.&lt;/div&gt;
 
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;19-Jun-08 2:00 PM
</description>
			<itunes:subtitle>Clinical trials of orphan medicines</itunes:subtitle>
			<itunes:summary>&lt;em&gt;Brendan M Buckley&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lancet &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2008; 371: 2051&#8211;55&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The development of orphan medicines presents many challenges, the main being to obtain sufficient evidence of effectiveness and safety in patients. Apart from the difficulties of funding clinical trials and recruiting competent investigators, the biggest challenge in trials on rare diseases is to recruit the right patients in adequate numbers. A rigid requirement to do studies that completely satisfy the needs of a classic design would prevent many orphan medicines from receiving marketing authorisation. (1)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the European Union, a disease is defined as rare if its prevalence is five cases or less per 10, 000 of the European population. (2) &amp;nbsp;Rare diseases therefore range from those with a low incidence and poor survival (eg, severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome), through those with a low incidence and relatively long survival (eg, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis), to those with a relatively common incidence but short survival (eg, pancreatic and renal carcinomas, myeloma, and glioma).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;For diseases categorised as rare because of short survival despite relatively common incidence, classic trial designs are practical, with large numbers of participants and hard outcomes such as survival. By contrast, some rare diseases affect fewer than 100 accessible patients in the European Union. For example, hyperammonaemia associated with N-acetylglutamate synthase deficiency was identified during a 20-year period from 1980 to 2001 in only 42 patients from 28 families.(3) &amp;nbsp;Many other rare diseases are prevalent to the extent of a few thousand people.&amp;nbsp; Under such circumstances, a trial based on classic frequentist design and requiring enrolment of hundreds of patients is impossible. Accordingly, the conduct, analysis, and interpretation of studies in rare disorders are constrained by the prevalence of the disease.
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Table: &lt;/em&gt;Orphan drugs with marketing authorisation in the European Union &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)&amp;nbsp; Disorders for which drug&amp;nbsp;is indicated&lt;br&gt;
2)&amp;nbsp; Marketing&amp;nbsp;authorisation date&lt;br&gt;
3)&amp;nbsp; Studies done in indicated disorder (number of participants)&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Agalsidase beta - Fabry&#8217;s disease&lt;br&gt;
May, 2001&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (15); phase III pivotal,&amp;nbsp;randomised, double-blind;&amp;nbsp;placebo-controlled multicentre (58); phase&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;III&amp;nbsp;open-label&amp;nbsp;extension (58)&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Agalsidase alfa - Fabry&#8217;s disease&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
May, 2001&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
Phase I and II (106)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Imatinib mesilate -&amp;nbsp;CML, CLL, GIST,&amp;nbsp;dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (see SPC for full list)&lt;br&gt;
August, 2001&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;CML: phase I (149); CML:&amp;nbsp;phase II (1027); GIST: phase II&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;(147); DFSP: phase II (12) &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Arsenic trioxide - Relapsed or refractory&amp;nbsp;acute promyelocytic leukaemia
&lt;div&gt;March, 2002&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II/III (52)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bosentan - Pulmonary arterial&amp;nbsp;hypertension, systemic sclerosis
&lt;div&gt;May, 2002&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II and III (174)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Pegvisomant - Acromegaly&amp;nbsp;with&amp;nbsp;incomplete response to surgery, radiotherapy, and somatostatin analogues&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;November, 2002&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II and Phase III (161)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Miglustat&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- Type 1 Gaucher&#8217;s disease&amp;nbsp;in patients for whom enzyme replacement unsuitable&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;
November, 2002&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
PhaseI/II pivotal (28); pharmacokinetic studies (82);&amp;nbsp;non-comparative study (18); &lt;br&gt;
open comparative study (36)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Carglumic acid -&amp;nbsp;Hyperammonaemia due to&amp;nbsp;N-acetyl glutamatesynthase deficiency
&lt;div&gt;January, 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Pharmacokinetic (12); retrospective patient data (20)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Laronidase&amp;nbsp;-&amp;nbsp;Mucopolysaccharidosis I (&amp;#945;-L-iduronidase deficiency)&lt;br&gt;
June, 2003&lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (10); Phase III (45)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Iloprost - Primary&amp;nbsp;pulmonary hypertension &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (76) Phase III (203)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Celecoxib -&amp;nbsp;Familial&amp;nbsp;adenomatous polyposis
&lt;div&gt;October 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (83)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Porfimer sodium - High-grade&amp;nbsp;dysplasia with Barrett&#8217;s oesophagus&lt;br&gt;
March 2004&lt;br&gt;
Phase II (48);&amp;nbsp;Phase III (208);&amp;nbsp;uncontrolled studies (86)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Mitotane - Advanced&amp;nbsp;adrenal cortical carcinoma&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;div&gt;April 2004&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;No new studies; fully bibliographic application&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Ibuprofen -&amp;nbsp;Patent ductus&amp;nbsp;arteriosus in preterm neonates&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
July 2004&lt;br&gt;
Dose range study (43); Phase II/III (131)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Zinc acetate -&amp;nbsp;Wilson&#8217;s disease&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
October, 2004&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;
Dose-response (60); open-label, uncontrolled (148);&amp;nbsp;bibliographic (140)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Anagrelide - At-risk essential thrombocythaemia &lt;br&gt;
November, 2004 &lt;br&gt;
Uncontrolled and compassionate use (1446 patients assessable for efficacy)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Nitisinone -&amp;nbsp;Hereditary tyrosinaemia type 1 &lt;br&gt;
February, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Compassionate use (212)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Ziconotide - Severe, chronic pain in patients who need intrathecal analgesia &lt;br&gt;
February, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II (224); phase II/III (1001); phase III (800)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sildenafil -&amp;nbsp;Pulmonary arterial hypertension &lt;br&gt;
October, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Phase III (277) &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sodium oxybate -&amp;nbsp;Cataplexy in adults with narcolepsy &lt;br&gt;
October, 2005 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II (45); phase III (192)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Galsulfase -&amp;nbsp;Mucopolysaccharidosis VI &lt;br&gt;
January, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II with open-label extension (7); phase III (39); untreated historical controls (121); sibling study (2)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Alglucosidase alfa -&amp;nbsp;Pompe&#8217;s disease &lt;br&gt;
March, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II/III 18; phase II (21); untreated historical controls (168)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Clofarabine - ALL in relapsed or refractory paediatric patients &lt;br&gt;
April, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II non-comparator (61)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Dexrazoxane - Anthracycline extravasations &lt;br&gt;
July, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II/III open label (80)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sunitinib malate - Malignant GIST; Renal cell carcinoma &lt;br&gt;
July, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (55); phase III GIST (312); phase II RCC (63); phase III; RCC (106)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Deferasirox - Chronic iron overload requiring chelation therapy &lt;br&gt;
August, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (165); phase II/III (296); open label (&amp;gt;200)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sitaxentan - Pulmonary arterial hypertension &lt;br&gt;
August, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase II (516)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Dasatinib - CML, ALL &lt;br&gt;
November, 2006 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I (92); phase III CML (911); phase III ALL (101)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Stiripentol - Severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy &lt;br&gt;
January, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Phase III (65); other (280)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Idursulfase - Mucopolysaccharidosis type II &lt;br&gt;
January, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Phase I/II (12); phase II/III (96); open label (12)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Rufinamide -&amp;nbsp;Lennox-Gastaut syndrome &lt;br&gt;
January, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Phase III (169)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Betaine - Homocystinuria &lt;br&gt;
February, 2007 &lt;br&gt;
Spontaneous literature reports (202)
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Nelarabine - ALL lymphoblastic lymphoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;August, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase I (181); phase II (227)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;5-amnolaevulinic acid hydrochloride - Glioma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Open label (415)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Busulfa - Preconditioning for hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September, 2003&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (103); paediatric (55)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Cladribine - Indolent non-Hodgkins lymphoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;April, 2004&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II (122)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sorafenib tosilate - Renal cell and hepatocellular carcinomas&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;July, 2006&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III renal (903); phase III hepatic (602)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Lenalidomide - Multiple myeloma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;June 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III (704)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Eculizumab - Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;June, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase II and III (195)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Hydroxycarbamide - Sickle cell syndrome&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;June, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bibliographic and registry data mainly&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Trabectidin - Soft tissue sarcoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;September, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Pivotal (266); pooled phase II (183)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Temsirolimus - Renal cell carcinoma&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;November, 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III (626)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Nilotinib - GIST&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;November 2007&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Phase III (439)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;ALL=acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. CML=chronic myeloid leukaemia. GIST=gastrointestinal stromal tumours. SPC=summary of product characteristics.
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Patients&#8217; advocacy and support organisations might help by recruiting participants for multicentre or multinational trials. Major patient coalitions, such as the European Organisation for Rare Diseases in Europe and the National Organization for Rare Diseases in the USA, can help access patients and identify specialist clinicians. Web-based resources such as the US National Institutes of Health website and the European site by Orphanet allow potential trial participants to access information about planned studies.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Randomised, double-blind controlled clinical trials are usually thought to provide the best evidence from which to assess the efficacy of a medical treatment. (4) Trials should be powered to allow the testing of a predefined hypothesis of superiority or non-inferiority compared with a comparator treatment. Trial design should identify and minimise potential sources of bias and their conduct should be of a high standard, done by skilled staff , and involving committed participants. (4) Estimation of the number of participants needed for a trial of a particular treatment is conventionally based on a hypothesis of a mean difference between treatments (&amp;#916;), allowing for type 1 and type 2 errors. (5) For extremely rare diseases, this estimate might need to be made from animal studies because most of the population with the disease might have been included into the trial, making it a once and only chance study.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Usual power calculations to estimate the number of participants needed for a trial assume normally distributed responses to treatment and control, which is not always true for rare diseases. Therefore, great care should be taken to avoid heterogeneity in the diagnosis, stage, and manifestations of the disease so that the variance in baseline characteristics is kept to a minimum. Adjustments to power calculations to obviate the assumption of normality might well not be helpful, since they tend to increase the sample size. Often when designing a trial of an orphan medicine with a small accessible sample, it is helpful to estimate the size of likely effects that might be detected at a reasonable power (say 80%) and &amp;#945; level (5%). The investigator might then assess whether these effects need to be too large to make the trial feasible. Although use of a continuous variable such as the measure of difference between two groups should further save on sample size compared with event-based outcomes, it is often not useful in trials for rare diseases to use the surrogate endpoints that this frequently requires.&amp;nbsp;Fortunately, some treatments for some rare diseases are so effective that they are considerably better than previously available (control) treatments, so that the numbers of participants needed are small. For example, results of a trial of stiripentol (n=21) compared with placebo (n=20) added to valproate and clobazam in severe myoclonic epilepsy showed a response in 15 (71%) patients on stiripentol and in one (5%) on placebo (difference 66%, 95% CI 42&#183;2&#8211;85&#183;7%; p&amp;lt;0&#183;0001). (3) Here, careful diagnosis and selection of participants to avoid heterogeneity decreased the number of participants needed. (3)&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;There has been interest in other approaches to trial design to allow for smaller numbers to be entered into trials for rare diseases, (6) such as the use of Bayesian approaches, (7,8) N-of-1, (9&#8211;14) crossover, (10,15) sequential, (16,17) and adaptive (15) (eg, play the winner) designs.&amp;nbsp;However, although each design might have a role in addressing a particular question, none is a universally applicable panacea for the small numbers of patients. For trials without a very large response difference between treatment and control, these designs are not likely to greatly decrease the number of patients needed.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Sometimes, despite optimum organisation of recruitment and the most sophisticated design to best use available patient numbers, a randomised controlled clinical trial in a very rare disease will be severely underpowered. However, as a basic principle, patients with rare diseases have rights to safe and effective treatment. The overriding role of medicine regulators is to protect public health by assuring availability of safe and effective medicines of adequate quality. Thus, the frequent but limited perception that regulators function only as a barrier (assuring safety, effectiveness, and quality) is incorrect. They also carry part of the responsibility to ensure that patients are not denied vital treatment. &lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;A clear tension exists between accelerating patients&#8217; access to treatments and the need to make the best possible scientific assessment of the risks and benefits of new orphan medicines. Best possible implies that, for each new orphan medicine, developers and sponsors make a convincing case that the evidence they present for its efficacy and safety is the best that can be assembled in a reasonable time. The helpful guidelines produced by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) (6) clearly establish that there is no absolute requirement for any particular kind of trial design when presenting an application for marketing authorisation of a specific drug. The practical application of this requirement to risk assessment of an orphan medicine is judged case by case, and investigators should always avail of the free scientific advice and protocol assistance provided by the EMEA before starting a trial. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;In some instances, orphan medicines might have been used extensively in clinical practice for decades&#8212;for example, trientine for Wilson&#8217;s disease, (18) caffeine for neonatal apnoea of prematurity, (19) and mitotane for adrenal cortical carcinoma. (20,21) Substantial published studies exists for these drugs, which mostly consist of case reports and clinical trials, many of which were probably not done to Good Clinical Practice standards. However, despite obvious limitations, a systematic review of published work can add substantially to the risk&#8211;benefit assessment. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;The EMEA lists a detailed summary of all evidence presented to them to support applications for marketing approval (as European Public Assessment Reports or EPARs) on their website. These reports show that the European regulator has taken an eclectic approach to the levels of acceptable evidence for licensing orphan products (table). They show that studies supporting marketing authorisation for orphan drugs consisted of numbers of treated patients ranging from as few as 12 to several hundred. In the instance of one drug, there was complete reliance on reported data only and no new studies were done. For all other drugs, at least one clinical study was included. For carglumic acid, only one clinical study (a pharmacokinetic one) was done. This study included only 12 volunteers, but there was also a retrospective patient data collection (n=20) and a commitment to collect further data and follow-up. Although most marketing authorisations for oncologyrelated orphan drugs were granted on the basis of large studies in commonly incident diseases, most of those for genetic disorders were based on much smaller studies, including some in which no new trials were done (table).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Difficult as it is to establish effectiveness of an orphan treatment, it is usually more challenging to establish the limits of its safety beyond that shown in non-clinical studies. Clearly, the number of patients included in all studies presented for any given authorised orphan drug is far too small to allow reliable detection of adverse effects that occur with a frequency of less than about 1%&amp;nbsp; (a sample size of 500&#8211;1000 would be needed). Therefore, knowledge related to the safety of an orphan medicine will usually be gained only after it has entered into the market and into widespread clinical use. Hence, a prospectively designed, highly structured programme of postmarketing surveillance is essential to continuously assess safety of all orphan medicines.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Medicines might receive approval in the European Union under any of three different headings: normal approval, approval under exceptional circumstances, and conditional approval. Approval under exceptional circumstances might be given when comprehensive data cannot be provided, for instance because of the rarity of the disease or because of ethical barriers. Such an approval is granted on the basis of specific obligations on the licence holder to inform the regulator about safety and efficacy with the passage of time. EMEA might grant conditional approval for 1 year, renewable, when the data set submitted is incomplete, but there is a positive risk&#8211;benefit balance evident from that available as long as the licence holder provides comprehensive clinical data after approval. Assessment of the benefits and risks of this approach will take some time to emerge. &lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Scientists, clinicians, industry, and regulators should help in the development of safe and effective treatments for patients with rare diseases. It is not easy to satisfy this obligation without developing new ways to allow assessment of orphan medicines in patients. Novel statistical techniques and recruitment that are more efficient will assist, but will not solve the fundamental truism that rare diseases yield few patients for clinical trials. Therefore, regulators do the best that they can with the limited information available when attempting to assess risks and benefits for orphan drugs. The prospective operation of systematic, coordinated, and comprehensive postmarketing surveillance of all orphan drugs might validate the eclectic approach taken so far.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lancet &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2008; 371: 2051&#8211;55&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;European Centre for Clinical Trials in Rare Diseases&lt;br&gt;
University College Cork &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Cork, Ireland&amp;nbsp; &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;(Prof B M Buckley FRCPI)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Correspondence to: &lt;br&gt;
Prof Brendan Buckley&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;European Centre for Clinical Trials in Rare Diseases&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;University College Cork&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Lancaster Hall, 6 &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Little Hanover Street&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Cork, Ireland&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;b.buckley@ucc.ie&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;For more on clinical trials&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;see&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.clinicaltrials.gov&quot;&gt;http://www.clinicaltrials.gov&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;
for more on EPARs see&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.emea.europa.eu/htms/human/epar/a.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.emea.europa.eu/htms/human/epar/a.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
Conflict of interest statement&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;BMB is chairman of the Irish Medicines Board&#8217;s Advisory Committee on Human Medicines and a director of the board.&amp;nbsp;He was formerly a member of the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of EMEA. He has received research funding on behalf of his Centre from the Government of Ireland, the Commission of the European Union, Baxter, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi -Aventis, and Univar. He has received speaker fees and assistance with travel and accommodation for scientific purposes from AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer, and Sanofi -Aventis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The&amp;nbsp;Myelin Project wants to thank Dr. Astrid James and the publisher of The Lance for granting us permission to post these articles. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;1 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lilford RJ, Thornton JG, Braunholtz D. Clinical trials and rare diseases: a way out of a conundrum. &lt;em&gt;BMJ &lt;/em&gt;1995; &lt;strong&gt;311: &lt;/strong&gt;1621&#8211;25. &lt;br&gt;
2 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;European Union. Regulation (EC) No 141/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Orphan Medicinal Products of 16 December 1999 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 847/2000 of 27 April 2000. &lt;em&gt;Off J Euro Comm &lt;/em&gt;2000; &lt;strong&gt;43: &lt;/strong&gt;L103/5&#8211;8. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;3 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Chiron C, Marchand MC, Tran A, et al, for the STICLO study group. Stiripentol in severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy: a randomised placebo-controlled syndrome-dedicated trial. &lt;em&gt;Lancet &lt;/em&gt;2000; &lt;strong&gt;356: &lt;/strong&gt;1638&#8211;42.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;4 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Anon. Note for guidance on statistical principles in clinical trials. London: EMEA, 1998. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;5 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Friedman LM, Fuberg CD, DeMets DL. Fundamentals of clinical trials 3rd edn. Kansas City: ACCP, 1998.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;6 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use. Guideline on clinical trials in small populations. London: EMEA&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;2006.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;7 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Berry D. A guide to drug discovery: Bayesian clinical trials. &lt;em&gt;Nat Rev Drug Dis &lt;/em&gt;2006; &lt;strong&gt;5: &lt;/strong&gt;27&#8211;36.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;8 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Freedman LS, Spiegelhalter DJ, Parmar MK. The what, why and how of Bayesian clinical trials monitoring. &lt;em&gt;Stat Med &lt;/em&gt;1994; &lt;strong&gt;13: &lt;/strong&gt;1371&#8211;83.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;9 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sung L, Feldman BM. N-of-1 trials: innovative methods to evaluate complementary and alternative medicines in pediatric cancer. &lt;em&gt;J Pediatr Hematol Oncol &lt;/em&gt;2006; &lt;strong&gt;28: &lt;/strong&gt;263&#8211;66.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;10 &amp;nbsp;Jones BKM. Design and analysis of cross-over trials. 2nd edn. Monographs on statistics and applied probability. London: CRC Press, 2003.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;11 &amp;nbsp;Suri R, Metcalfe C, Wallis C, Bush A. Predicting response to rhDNase and hypertonic saline in children with cystic fi brosis. &lt;em&gt;Pediatr Pulmonol &lt;/em&gt;2004; &lt;strong&gt;37: &lt;/strong&gt;305&#8211;10.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;12 &amp;nbsp;Backman CL, Harris SR. Case studies, single-subject research, and&amp;nbsp;N-of-1 randomized trials: comparisons and contrasts. &lt;em&gt;Am J Phys Med Rehabil &lt;/em&gt;1999; &lt;strong&gt;78: &lt;/strong&gt;170&#8211;76.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;13 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Cook DJ. Randomized trials in single subjects: the N of 1 study. &lt;em&gt;Psychopharmacol Bull &lt;/em&gt;1996; &lt;strong&gt;32: &lt;/strong&gt;363&#8211;67.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;14 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Bollert FG, Paton JY, Marshall TG, Calvert J, Greening AP, Innes JA; Scottish Cystic Fibrosis Group. Recombinant DNase in cystic fi brosis: a protocol for targeted introduction through n-of-1 trials. &lt;em&gt;Eur Respir J &lt;/em&gt;1999; &lt;strong&gt;13: &lt;/strong&gt;107&#8211;13.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;15 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lagakos SW. Clinical trials and rare diseases. &lt;em&gt;N Engl J Med &lt;/em&gt;2003; &lt;strong&gt;348: &lt;/strong&gt;2455&#8211;56.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;16 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Stallard N, Todd S. Sequential designs for phase III clinical trials incorporating treatment selection. &lt;em&gt;Stat Med &lt;/em&gt;2003; &lt;strong&gt;22: &lt;/strong&gt;689&#8211;703.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;17 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Whitehead J. The design and analysis of sequential clinical trials. 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley, 1997.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;18 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Walshe JM. The management of Wilson&#8217;s disease with triethylene tetramine 2HC1 (Trien 2HC1). &lt;em&gt;Prog Clin Biol Res &lt;/em&gt;1979; &lt;strong&gt;34: &lt;/strong&gt;271&#8211;80.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;19 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Gunn TR, Metrakos K, Riley P, Willis D, Aranda JV. Sequelae of caff eine treatment in preterm infants with apnea. &lt;em&gt;J Pediatr &lt;/em&gt;1979; &lt;strong&gt;94: &lt;/strong&gt;106&#8211;9.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;20 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lubitz JA, Freeman L, Okun R. Mitotane use in inoperable adrenal cortical carcinoma. &lt;em&gt;JAMA &lt;/em&gt;1973; &lt;strong&gt;223: &lt;/strong&gt;1109&#8211;12. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;21 &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Schein PS. Chemotherapeutic management of the hormone-secreting endocrine malignancies. &lt;em&gt;Cancer &lt;/em&gt;1972; &lt;strong&gt;30: &lt;/strong&gt;1616&#8211;26.&lt;/div&gt;
</itunes:summary>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?60</guid>
			<author>noemail@myelin.org</author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>

			<category>Articles</category>
			<link>http://www.myelin.org/en/art/?55</link>
			<title>Gene Therapy of Inherited Diseases</title>
			<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Alain Fischer, Marina Cavazzana-Calvo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lancet 2008; 371: 2044&#8211;47&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thousands of rare diseases are caused by a Mendelian genetic error. So far, more than 1800 genes associated with rare diseases have been identified (1) and, in many cases, their expression patterns and functions have been unravelled. This information is a prerequisite for development of a therapeutic strategy. Depending on the disease&#8217;s severity, and by assessing feasibility and treatment alternatives, gene therapy can be viewed as an option in some instances (table2).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Genetic disorders are phenotypically very heterogeneous. In considering the appropriate form of gene therapy, three basic parameters need to be established: whether a mutation leads to a loss or gain of function; whether or not a gene product&#8217;s function affects cell survival or development; and the disease gene&#8217;s tissue specificity. (3) There are four different gene therapy strategies. First, addition of a normal copy of the mutated gene. This approach is best suited to loss-of-function mutations and has been the focus of most gene therapy attempts so far. Second, modification of messenger RNA to avoid the consequences of mutation. This strategy can be viewed as a promising option when the mutated exon is not indispensable.(4) Third, inhibition of expression of a mutated gene. This approach is potentially useful to prevent the expression of a gain-of-function protein or to inhibit a cryptic splice site, thus preventing expression of an abnormally spliced product with deleterious consequences. The use of small interfering RNA seems to be preferred, (5) provided that unexpected toxic effects (as seen in the liver6) are not serious. Last, repair of the gene&#8212;an ultimate and elegant strategy aimed at reverting mutation. (7) This technology is based on the use of chimeric proteins composed of a DNA-sequence-specific binding domain and an endonuclease capable of inducing site-specifi c double-strand breaks in DNA. Simultaneously, a template encompassing the wild-type sequence that corresponds to the mutated stretch of DNA is introduced into the cell and acts as a substrate for repair by homologous recombination. Zinc-finger protein domains coupled to the FOK1 nuclease have been engineered and shown specifically to correct the &lt;em&gt;IL2RG &lt;/em&gt;gene encoding the &amp;#947;c-chain of cytokine receptors (as noted in X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency [SCID-X1]) in 5&#8211;17% of cells. (7) However, the road to clinical application is still long, because of many technical concerns.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;RNA viruses (eg, &amp;#947; retroviruses, spumaviruses, and lentiviruses) are being used to mediate integrative gene transfer. (8&#8211;10) &amp;nbsp;Either a viral promoter, such as the retroviral long-terminal repeat, or a potent viral or cellular internal promoter can be used. &amp;#947; retroviral vectors are only effective in dividing cells, because the preintegration complex cannot cross the nuclear membrane, whereas lentiviral vectors can deliver genes to the genome of non-dividing cells. Substantial attention has been paid to the integration sites for provirus-derived vectors.&amp;nbsp; etroviral vectors integrate with a high frequency near CpG islands, (11&#8211;13) &amp;nbsp;meaning that the long-terminal repeat can also target active genes albeit without a selective tropism to the transcription start site. Lentivirus-like vectors derived from HIV or simian immunodeficiency virus can target active genes.(14,15) &amp;nbsp;Intact retroviral long-terminal repeats can also cause genotoxicity, as shown experimentally and in man in SCID-X1. (16,17)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;An alternative strategy consists of using modified selfinactivated long-terminal repeats combined with an internal promoter or of site-specific integration, for example, the phage &amp;#936; C31 integrase, which can mediate integration into chromosomes at rare genomic sequences.(18,19) However, clinical application of this approach is hypothetical, since uncontrolled, non-specific recombination events and chromosomal instability have been noted. (19) &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;DNA viruses provide non-integrative means of transferring therapeutic genes. Most of the interest has focused on four viruses: adenovirus, adeno-associated viruses, herpes simplex virus, and Epstein-Barr virus. Since the genetic material of these viruses does not usually integrate into cells and is not replicated at cell division, their use is restricted to the infection of postmitotic cells. (8,9) The main drawback is in their strong immunogenicity (these viruses naturally infect man), as observed in this otherwise eff ective gene therapy trial for haemophilia B. (20,21) Adapted immunosuppressive therapy might, however, be used to circumvent T and B cell response to viral proteins, such as adeno-associated virus capsid.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Non-integrating lentiviral vectors have been developed by mutagenesis of the integrase or the vector&#8217;s integrase-attachment sites. They also seem to be efficient for stable transduction of postmitotic cells. However, production of high-titre viral preparations is a challenge. Non-viral vectors based on plasmids (whether contained or not in liposomes) have also been used (table). Attempts so far have led to very few efficient gene expressions, because of diffculties in intracellular targeting and in-vivo bioavailability.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To correct a genetic disease by targeting mature cells is a challenge unless the cells are long-lived. Hence, long-lived, postmitotic cells in the retina or the central nervous system (ie, neurons and glia) are important targets to consider for gene therapy. Impressive results have been achieved in experimental models of retinitis pigmentosa via in-situ subretinal injections of vector preparations containing the Leber&#8217;s congenital amaurosis gene, &lt;em&gt;RPE65&lt;/em&gt;. (22&#8211;24)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;These results represent encouraging steps in clinical application. Preliminary results from clinical trials show that the approach is safe and might provide some benefits, albeit of limited magnitude. (25,26) However, whether treatment will still be effective in the late-disease stages during which patients are typically diagnosed is to be ascertained. (27) &amp;nbsp;This issue is a paradigm for genetic diseases associated with cell loss, such as Fanconi&#8217;s anaemia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Stem cells are natural candidates for gene therapy of inherited diseases. As discussed previously, the availability of lentiviral vectors for transgene integration into non-cycling cells makes this approach feasible. Haemopoietic stem cells have long been used as a source of cells for the treatment of many genetic blood disorders via allogeneic transplantation. Ex-vivo gene transfer is efficient, but once reinfused, the overall set of transduced cells only represents a small fraction of the pool of in-vivo stem cells. The transduced cells will thus be outcompeted unless a selective advantage is provided by transgene expression as in SCID, engineering a selection marker,(28) or reducing the mass of untransduced cells by myeloablative chemotherapy&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Disease&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Efficacy&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Toxic Effects&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
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&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 8pt; color: #339966&quot;&gt;&amp;#947; retrovirus (ex vivo)&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;div&gt;CD34 cells&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7.5pt&quot;&gt;x-linked sever combined&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;yes, 9 years&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;yes, insertional&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7.5pt&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Immunodeficiency&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;mutagenesis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Adenosine deaminase deficiency&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Yes, 6 years&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Chronic granulomatous disease&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Yes, transient&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Yes, insertional&amp;nbsp;mutug&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;enesis&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Fanconi&#8217;s anaemia&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Skin stem cells&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Epidermolysis bullosa&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Yes, 10 months&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #339966; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Bold&quot;&gt;Adeno-associated virus (in vivo)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Muscle&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Haemophilia B&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Low level of expression&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Liver&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Haemophilia B&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Yes, transient&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Airway&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Cystic fibrosis&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Brain&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Ceroid lipofuscinosis&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #339966; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Bold&quot;&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Adenovirus (in vivo)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; color: #231f20; font-family: Shaker2Lancet-Regular&quot;&gt;Airway&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Cystic fibrosis&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 7pt; co