Aug. 22, 2022
Terry Pirovolakis and his family may have achieved the unthinkable, but the father from Toronto says the work isn’t over yet.
The Pirovolakis family raised $3 million to develop a possible cure for their son, Michael, who suffers from a rare genetic disease called spastic paraplegia type 50 or SPG50.
Three years after receiving his diagnosis, and with the help of an international team of doctors and scientists, on March 24, 2022, four-year-old Michael became the first person to receive a new form of gene therapy meant to treat the disease.
On Monday, Michael’s father Terry Pirovolakis told CTV’s Your Morning that the drug has received U.S. Federal Drug Administration approval and clinical trials are set to take place in Texas, with the goal of treating 10 more children.
“There’s no stopping, we have to cure them all,” he said.