Patricia Inacio, PhD, science writer —

More than half of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients take more than a year to be diagnosed from symptom onset and about two-thirds feel the diagnostic process was long and/or very complicated, according to an online survey in Poland. Also, while 7 out of 10 respondents said their current treatment…

Vyvgart (efgartigimod alfa) has been approved in China as an add-on to standard therapy for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG). The approval, announced by the therapy’s developer Argenx and its partner Zai Lab, was made by the Chinese regulatory agency the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). The approval is…

The single breath count test (SBCT), a noninvasive and inexpensive pulmonary function test, may help evaluate respiratory function and identify when symptoms worsen with myasthenia gravis (MG), a review of several studies has found. A cutoff value of 25 or higher in the SBCT was indicative of normal respiratory…

The use of an inactivated vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is not linked to an increased risk of symptom worsening among people with myasthenia gravis (MG), according to a small study from China. “COVID-19 vaccination has no long-term impact on MG relapse,” researchers wrote. However, a…

The risk of developing another autoimmune disease, especially rheumatoid arthritis, increased in people with myasthenia gravis (MG) after surgery to remove a thymoma, or a tumor of the thymus gland, according to a recent Chinese study. Women and younger patients were at particularly higher risk. The study, “…

Over 40% of adults with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) in the U.S. who began off-label treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) became frequent users, with six or more courses in the first year, according to real-world data covering 1,225 patients. Use of standard treatments, namely corticosteroids and nonsteroidal immunosuppressives,…

Nearly six months of treatment with telitacicept (RC18), an anti-inflammatory developed by RemeGen, safely lessened disease severity in adults with myasthenia gravis (MG) positive for acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies. That’s according to new data from an ongoing Phase 2 trial in China. “The latest Phase II clinical study…

Cour Pharmaceuticals is launching a Phase 1b/2a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the safety and preliminary effectiveness of its investigational therapy CNP-106, an immune-modifying nanoparticle that’s designed to reprogram the immune system in adults with myasthenia gravis (MG). The announcement follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of…

People with myasthenia gravis (MG) who are receiving immunosuppressive therapy are more likely to be hospitalized for a COVID-19 infection, yet the majority of patients are discharged without any complications, a single center study reports. “Immunosuppressive therapy was continued during COVID-19 infection,” and “most of hospitalized patients were discharged…

Long-term immunotherapy may cause anemia in female patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), according to a Japanese study that found that women with this blood condition — one of the potential side effects of immunotherapy — had significantly worse disease severity. Anemia, a condition marked by a low…