Omar Sinno, MD, Medical Lead of Rare Disease at UCB, gives an overview of myasthenia gravis.
As Dr. Sinno explains, myasthenia gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease due to antibodies attacking a person’s neuromuscular template. It is characterized by weakness of the skeletal muscles. Common symptoms include weakness of the muscles that control eyes, eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, talking, and swallowing. Weakness tends to increase during periods of activity and decrease after periods of rest. Treatments available for myasthenia gravis, as of right now, are limited to managing the symptoms instead of treating the pathophysiology. No targeted therapies or cures for the disease are available at the moment.
Dr. Sinno emphasizes the effect of myasthenia gravis on daily life. The disease makes daily tasks like walking up stairs or social interactions difficult. He also notes that flare-ups of muscle weakness can happen without warning.
Currently, two targeted therapies are being investigated by UCB to treat myasthenia gravis (rozanolixizumab; zilucoplan) and both are in phase 3 randomized, double-blind clinical trials (NCT03971422; NCT04115293).
To learn more about myasthenia gravis, visit our Myasthenia Gravis Learning Center here.
