Film EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TRUE GENZYME STORY

Posted on January 16, 2010 by Jeffrey Newman

The new Hollywood film EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES, starring Harrison Ford as a brilliant scientist, opens Friday and is based on a true story taking place at Genzyme Corporation in Cambridge. It is about the treatment developed for Pompe disease, a rare enzyme deficiency. Genzyme created Myozyme using in house research. Boston Globe staffer Geeta Anand wrote a book on the topic called THE CURE. Now more than a thousand patients take the drug which has saved their lives. Henri Termeer, Genzyme’s CEO has yet to see the film but said he hopes it is an opportunity to educate the world about about the efforts of hundreds of researchers, scientists and others still working to perfect such drugs. Pompe disease is a neuromuscular disorder in which sugar builds up in muscles causing damages throughout the body. It affects both children and adults. The research done on this disease is thought to have broad ranging benefits to the study of other neurogenic disorders. The film itself will be reviewed on this blog next weekend.