News

To help bring awareness this month to sickle cell disease (SCD) and childhood cancers, the supplemental insurance provider Aflac recently engaged young patients with those disorders at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in south Florida through its My Special Aflac Duck social robot program. September is National Sickle Cell Awareness…

Forma Therapeutics, which is currently developing an experimental treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD) called etavopivat, is being acquired by Novo Nordisk, the two companies announced. “Novo Nordisk has worked for more than 40 years to develop and deliver transformative medicines to patients around the world with…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year, $7.7-million grant to support a new research project that seeks to lower barriers to healthcare for people with sickle cell disease (SCD). The project, titled “Recruitment and Engagement in Care to Impact Practice Enhancement (RECIPE) for Sickle…

For most of her life, 38-year-old DeeAnn Edwards Mann has been quiet about having sickle cell disease (SCD). She has tried to remain anonymous on sickle cell-related forums and social media conversations, and doesn’t talk about it much with her friends. In some cases, she can even hide her…

A cohort of African health ministers, with support from the African regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), has opened a campaign to improve sickle cell disease (SCD) awareness, prevention, and care in that continent, where most SCD patients reside. The effort seeks to curb the blood disorder’s…

People with sickle cell anemia (SCA) — the most common and the most severe form of sickle cell disease (SCD) — are more commonly hospitalized in the cooler winter and spring seasons than in the hotter summer or fall, according to a study conducted in Brazil. Better understanding of…

Intravenous bisphosphonate therapy can ease bone pain in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), a new study reports. The study, “Sickle cell bone disease and response to intravenous bisphosphonates in children,” was published in the journal Osteoporosis International. Many people with SCD experience…

The first patient has been dosed in a Phase 1/2 trial assessing the safety and preliminary efficacy of Graphite Bio’s experimental gene editing therapy GPH101 (now called nula-cel) in people with sickle cell disease (SCD). The trial, called CEDAR (NCT04819841), is currently recruiting participants at three sites,…

Contraception practices and counseling for adolescent and young adult women with sickle cell disease (SCD) vary by the healthcare provider, especially among clinicians with more or less experience, a survey reported. Established clinicians were found to be more likely to provide contraceptive counseling than those still in training, by…

In a move to enhance three decades of treatment development in rare hematology, Pfizer will acquire Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), a biopharmaceutical company that has been a leader in sickle cell disease (SCD) therapeutics, for $5.4 billion. The acquisition brings GBT’s treatment portfolio and pipeline — and its…