SMA Program
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a fatal genetic disease. SMA affects approximately one in every ten thousand babies born each year. If untreated, most of them do not live past two years of age.
One of the leading medicines to treat SMA, Zolgensma (by Novartis), is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive medicine in the world ($2.1 million per one injection).
Zolgensma replaces the function of the missing or non-working SMN1 gene with a new working copy of the human SMN1gene. In essence, it halts the disease at its root.
Zolgensma's accessibility is extremely low due to its astronomically high cost. Today, in many parts of the world, hundreds of SMA-afflicted children cannot receive the gene-based therapy they desperately need to survive.
The "Birds for Sofia" helps families when the need for commercial purchase of Zolgensma is demonstrated and the child meets the prescription criteria. Ex: neurologist's recommendation with denied insurance or absence of governmental support.