After Jenny Pearson’s daughter Elise first had a seizure at 16 months old, an MRI came back clean—her brain “looked beautiful,” Pearson recalled to Fierce. | After Jenny Pearson’s daughter Elise first had a seizure at 16 months old, an MRI came back clean—her brain “looked beautiful,” Pearson recalled to Fierce. But a follow-up scan a year later, just days before Thanksgiving, showed her frontal lobe was now awash in white splotches. A genetic test the week before Christmas gave a troubling diagnosis: Alexander disease.

Zanvastro is now the first approved medicine for Alexander disease. Elsewhere, an immune system specialist posted positive results and a cell therapy developer turned to layoffs.

The FDA approves Ionis' Zanvastro as the first treatment for Alexander disease, clearing the way for the company's first solo neurology launch.