FDA Approves New Treatment Relyvrio for People With ALS
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved AMX0035 (Relyvrio) for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The drug was developed by Amylyx Pharmaceuticals.ALS is the most common neurodegenerative disorder of midlife; more than 120,000 people worldwide have ALS, including approximately 29,000 adults in the United States. When a person has ALS, the neurons in the brain and spinal cord degenerate and can no longer communicate with the muscles.ALS is in the same family of diseases as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease, explains Jim Caress, MD, a neurologist and researcher at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Caress was one of several researchers involved in the phase 2 trial of the drug. “With Alzheimer’s disease,…