Scandal aside, Novartis stands firm behind Zolgensma

Novartis, which is still recovering from that ugly little data scandal, is doubling down on the potential of its spinal muscular atrophy drug, Zolgensma. 

The drug maker unveiled some new data at the European Pediatric Neurology Society annual meeting in Athens — showing that infants who had a severe form of the disease but weren’t yet symptomatic took the drug and were able to sit and stand. Normally, as BiopharmaDive writes, children with severe SMA are never able to sit, and most die by the time they’re 2.

Novartis also said that while an infant participating in the trial did die, the cause of death was not from taking Zolgensma — but from brain damage stemming from a respiratory tract infection.