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Current treatment benefits for patients with muscle disease are limited, but progress in legislative and scientific initiatives have set the stage for the development of new therapies. The MD-CARE Act (Public Law 107-84), which allocates federal resources to muscular dystrophy, was approved by Congress and signed into law by the President of the United States in 2001. This has shifted the emphasis toward translational research. To facilitate a push toward therapy for muscle disorders, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) sponsored a meeting with representatives from industry, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and academia. Each contributed in different ways. The FDA helped define the necessary data to support investigational new drug (IND) applications including the design of proof-of-principle studies, outcome measures for clinical trials, and the pathway for developing surrogate measures for fast-tracking promising new drugs. The NIH, other government agencies, and the MDA described potential funding sources for translational research. Industry delineated a complementary role with academia, and academic investigators elucidated the current strengths and weaknesses of available clinical endpoints. The meeting provided a format for communication for diverse disciplines that usually have no common meeting ground, helping to lay the foundation for bringing products to market in a timely fashion. Muscle Nerve, 2006 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Ethics, Evidence, and Cost in Newborn Screening," by Mary Ann Baily and Thomas H. Murray, in the May-June 2008 issue.

The article provides information on the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders and Genetic Diseases in Newborns and Children (ACHDGDNC), its brief history and its accomplishments. ACHDGDNC is created to give advice and to guide the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the appropriate application of universal screening technologies, policies and guidelines to reduce mortality and morbidity in newborns and children at risk of genetic disorders.

The article presents an introduction to the articles published in this issue of the periodical on newborn screening.