TL;DR
Satellos Bioscience is testing a pill that tries to make muscle repair itself rather than simply bulk up, by waking up the body's own muscle stem cells, and it is testing it first in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, whose muscle steadily turns to fat. On Nov. 6 the company said that, after feedback from the FDA, its trial in 53 boys will now judge the pill by an MRI scan of how much of the thigh muscle is fat, a measure the company hopes could open a faster accelerated-approval route (the company's hope, not an FDA commitment). The first placebo-controlled answer is due in the first quarter of 2027. If a pill can restart muscle repair in these boys, the same idea is one many researchers want for the muscle people lose with age. To see our odds on when a muscle-repair pill reaches patients, and the timeline of breakthroughs that leads there, subscribe.
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