Time is the enemy of people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a relentlessly progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by motor neuron death in the brain and spinal cord. A diagnosis quickly leads to deteriorating muscle function as the disease takes away a person's ability to walk, speak, eat, and breathe. ALS is fatal and the most common cause of neurological death in Canada. And despite this disease's rapid progression (the average life expectancy from symptom onset is two to five years), innovation in ALS has historically been slow and riddled with failures.
That's kept Amylyx Pharmaceuticals co-founders and co-CEOs, Josh Cohen and Justin Klee, up at night since the company's early days a little over 10 years ago, when the two were undergrad students poring over neurology papers and following their curiosity about why neurons die. Fast forward to one year ago, when Amylyx received its first drug approval in Canada for the treatment of ALS, before any other country in the world.
"Canada-first" milestones
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Maclean's.
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This story is from the July 2023 edition of Maclean's.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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