Barry J Byrne, MD, PhD, on MDA’s Upcoming 2025 Clinical & Scientific Conference

“Really, this is the era of therapies for neuromuscular diseases. In the past year, we saw an additional few strategies that are transformative in the care of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and we have continued to make advances in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) care following on the enormous success of the release of Zolgensma in 2019.”

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an organization dedicated to serving the community of patients with neuromuscular disorders, both those with muscular dystrophies and those with other types of neuromuscular disease. Each year, the organization holds the MDA Clinical & Scientific Conference to bring together physicians, clinical trial investigators, academic researchers, patient advocates, biotech executives, and other stakeholders to share and discuss the latest findings in neuromuscular disease research. This year’s meeting, which will be held from March 16 to 19, 2025, in Dallas, Texas, is notable for coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the organization itself.

Ahead of the conference, CGTLive® reached out to Barry J Byrne, MD, PhD, the chief medical advisor of MDA and a physician-scientist at the University of Florida, to learn more about what attendees can expect at this year’s event, which Byrne highlighted that around 1,500 or more people are expected to attend. He emphasized that the field of muscular dystrophy has recently entered the era of disease-modifying treatment after a long history of basic research, thanks in part to the FDA’s approvals of several gene therapy products for neuromuscular diseases in recent years, including nasemnogene abeparvovec (Zolgensma; Novartis) for SMA and delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl (Elevidys; Sarepta Therapeutics) for DMD. Furthermore, he noted that means of maximizing muscle regeneration in patients with degenerative neuromuscular diseases, real world experience with Elevidys following its 2024 expanded access approval, and tackling challenges with access to treatment or reimbursement will be among the themes at the 2025 conference.

Click here to register for the upcoming 2025 MDA Conference.