Amylin Pharmaceuticals recently announced that it is participating in the fifth annual international Rare Disease Day to demonstrate the Company’s support for patients and families who are impacted by rare diseases. Celebrated around the world today, Rare Disease Day aims to raise awareness of the more than 7,000 known rare diseases and the effects of these diseases on patients’ lives, and to provide a platform of unity for rare disease patient communities.

In the U.S., a disease is considered rare, or orphan, if it affects fewer than 200,000 individuals. According to the National Institutes of Health Office of Rare Diseases Research, an estimated 25 to 30 million people in the U.S. have a rare disease. Most rare diseases have limited or no associated treatment options – and, to date, there are no known cures for these diseases.

“We are honored to participate in activities to draw heightened attention to rare diseases and the critical need to drive research to better understand these diseases and develop effective therapies for patients,” said Daniel M. Bradbury, president and chief executive officer of Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

“At Amylin, we are proud to be advancing the development of a potential therapy for rare forms of lipodystrophy, an ‘ultra-orphan’ disease. We believe all patients – whether they are impacted by one of the world’s most prevalent diseases, like type 2 diabetes, or one of the rarest – deserve better treatment options.”

Amylin launches disease awareness website – mylipodystrophy.com
To coincide with Rare Disease Day, Amylin also announced today the launch of mylipodystrophy.com, a disease awareness website that is dedicated to rare forms of lipodystrophy, and serves as a resource for information about the disease for patients, caregivers and healthcare providers.

People with lipodystrophy lack fat tissue. This can be partial, affecting select areas of the body, or generalized, affecting the entire body. The physical appearance of people with lipodystrophy can therefore vary considerably. Fat tissue is a major endocrine organ producing important metabolic hormones such as leptin.

A lack of functioning fat tissue can lead to relative deficiency of leptin. Without adequate leptin function, the metabolic system, which regulates food intake, energy storage, and energy production, falls out of balance. Fat accumulates in the blood or organs, which can lead to life-threatening complications including insulin-resistant diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, acute pancreatitis and hepatic steatosis or steatohepatitis, also known as fatty liver disease.

There are no approved drugs to adequately treat the metabolic abnormalities that occur in lipodystrophy. To help raise public awareness of rare diseases, Amylin is also featuring a Rare Disease Day series on its corporate blog, Building Blocks, available at www.amylinbuildingblocks.com.

This series includes contributions from several experts in the rare disease field describing efforts underway to understand and combat rare diseases, as well as initiatives that are providing support for patient communities. Amylin is also participating in the Global Genes Project’s ”Wear that you Care” denim campaign, encouraging its employees to wear jeans to work today to show support for the rare disease cause.

Amylin is developing metreleptin as a potential treatment option for diabetes and/or hypertriglyceridemia in pediatric and adult patients with rare forms of lipodystrophy. The Company plans to complete the rolling Biologics License Application (BLA) submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of this year.

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Bernardin Lochmueller & Associates (BLA), a leader in sustainable infrastructure design, recently received a method patent for its Eco-Treatment constructed wetland system to treat wastewater from animal confinement operations

Manure management processes by Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have come under increasing scrutiny. Some CAFOs store manure in lagoons, until they can dispose of it, most often by applying it to fields. Environmentalists and some regulators are concerned about the release of raw wastes into watersheds, especially when rain causes lagoons to overflow or manure runs off of fields into nearby bodies of water.

In 2008 the EPA established zero discharge requirements but did not require facility-specific reporting. A proposed EPA rule would require CAFOs to provide information on waste discharges starting this July in an effort to protect water quality. The public comment period for this new rule closes January 19.

Constructed wetlands, whether used as a stand-alone system or in combination with land application or other treatment alternatives, offer a cost-effective solution to assist CAFOs in meeting the zero discharge requirement. Using plants and a variety of filter media, the system provides a natural approach to reducing or eliminating nutrients and other chemicals from manure and wastes. The system can even be fine-tuned to provide effluent with nutrient loads that match the needs of specific crops.

To date, BLA’s Water Resources Team, led by Mark Harrison, PE, LEED AP, has designed more than 80 constructed wetland systems for the treatment of animal waste, site and municipal sewage, and Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). A number of these have won state and national awards for innovative engineering.

One recent project is saving the City of Washington, Indiana, a city of 12,000, more than $40 million on its plan to meet federal mandates for CSO water quality. The wetland system will also save the city $1.6 million in annual operations and maintenance. It was recently named one of the Top Projects for 2011 by Water & Wastes Digest.

“Constructed wetlands offer a variety of benefits,” says Harrison. “Because nature does the work, it reduces the energy used, be that energy needed to transport manure or run a mechanical treatment system, not to mention cutting the cost of additional chemicals to treat waste. In some instances, we’ve even designed wetlands to provide habitat for wildlife or walking trails. It’s just an all-around great solution!”

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