MDA Awards Three-year, $900,000 Grant to Jerry Mendell, MD, of Nationwide Children’s Hospital

COLUMBUS, OH, July 14, 2009 — At a time when federal and private funds for biomedical research have become scarce, the Muscular Dystrophy Association reasserts its leadership in the fight against muscle diseases by announcing grants to innovative research projects throughout America and in Canada.

“Federal support for the type of work we do has just about dried up, especially in the current economic climate. Simply put, without the support of MDA, this line of investigation could not be pursued by our lab,” said Eric Schon, researcher at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

MDA has committed over $2 billion to fund medical and scientific research, as well as clinical and client services, in its 55-year history.

“These new research grants, just announced at the July MDA Board of Directors meeting, support research to be conducted from 2009 through 2011, totaling almost $5 million. MDA committed approximately $43million to new and ongoing research in 2008,” said MDA Chairman of the Board R. Rodney Howell.

There are no cures yet for most muscle diseases, but the research MDA has funded has created the basis for progressive treatments of muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and spinal muscular atrophy. It also served as the basis for a lifesaving therapy developed by Genzyme for a metabolic muscle disease called Pompe disease.

MDA has awarded a three-year, $900,000 award to Jerry Mendell at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio for a study to combat heart disease in muscular dystrophy. While advances in treatment of the devastating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have prolonged boys’ lives, physicians are seeing more heart disease develop in young men living with the disease.

“The longer patients with DMD live, the greater the risk of cardiac complications. In this study, we hope to improve cardiac care by establishing the best medication regimen and to look at the best time to start treatment to protect the patient from heart failure,” Mendell said.

He added, “It is clear that without the support of MDA this study and others like it could not be done. MDA is devoted to the treatment of Duchenne and the progress that has been made to this date is the result of the MDA commitment.”