New Ratings scale positioned to deliver meaningful benefit for clinical research presented at 2019 MDA Clinical and Scientific Conference in Orlando, FL
LONDON and DURHAM, N.C., April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — AMO Pharma Limited (“AMO Pharma”), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focusing on rare, childhood onset neurogenetic disorders with limited or no treatment options, today announced the presentation of a new clinician-completed rating scale to assess features of congenital myotonic dystrophy type 1 (CDM1). An overview of the new rating scale was presented on Monday, April 15th in a poster presentation titled, “The Development of the Clinician-Completed Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 Rating Scale (CDM1-RS)” led by Joseph Horrigan MD, AMO Pharma’s chief medical officer, during The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Clinical & Scientific Conference at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.
“Standard assessment tools should be used to follow FDA guidance and capture all of the characteristic symptoms of a condition to be useful in clinical trials. To that end, the CDM1-RS rating scale has been evolved from the well validated MDHI and CCMDHI measures developed by professor Chad Heatwole and professor Nicholas Johnson in the hope it can become a widely accepted clinician instrument for CDM1,” said Michael Snape, chief executive officer of AMO Pharma. “The availability of scale to assess CDM1 can expand our understanding of this disorder, streamline the diagnostic process and could provide essential insights to guide future clinical research.”
CDM1 is a genetic disease caused by a large tri-nucleotide expansion repeat adjacent to the DMPK gene. Symptoms usually present shortly after birth and include difficulty with thinking and problem solving, speech impairment, symptoms of autism and weakened muscles. There are currently no approved therapies for CDM1. Patients are often treated with a combination of medical interventions designed to address individual symptom as they arise.