– International event will raise awareness and bring together RRP patients, caregivers, and the healthcare community supporting them – – Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis is a rare, debilitating, chronic disease that impacts both children and adults and is mainly driven by HPV 6/11 infection – – There is no FDA-approved therapeutic for the treatment of RRP, and the current standard-of-care is repeated surgeries, which do not address the underlying cause of disease and are associated with significant morbidity and risk of irreversible injury –
GERMANTOWN, Md., April 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Precigen, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGEN), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative gene and cell therapies to improve the lives of patients, today announced that the Company will team up again with the Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis Foundation (RRPF) to co-host the annual RRP Awareness Day on June 11, 2025. RRP Awareness Day is an international event to raise awareness about recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), bringing together patients with RRP, their caregivers, and the healthcare community supporting them to encourage dialogue and build community among those affected by this rare, debilitating chronic disease.
RRP impacts both children and adults and is mainly driven by HPV 6/11 infection resulting in papilloma growth in the upper and lower respiratory tract, potentially leading to severe voice disturbance, compromised airway, and recurrent post-obstructive pneumonias. Although rare, RRP has the potential for transformation to malignant cancer and can be fatal. Current estimates suggest there are approximately 27,000 adult patients in the US and more than 125,000 patients outside of the US. There is no cure for RRP and the current standard-of-care is repeated surgeries, which do not address the underlying cause of disease and are associated with significant morbidity. With the cycle of recurrence and surgery, patients can require hundreds of lifetime surgeries. The cumulative risk of iatrogenic laryngeal injury increases with each RRP surgery, particularly with patients requiring five or more lifetime surgeries. There is high unmet need for a treatment option that can treat the underlying cause of the disease and reduce the need for RRP surgeries.
RRP Awareness Day activities will culminate in a live event on June 11th in Washington DC featuring an in-person panel discussion with patients, caregivers, and treating physicians and will be broadcast to webcast participants globally. This year's event will focus on raising awareness regarding the patient and caregiver experience with RRP, the burden of living with RRP, and the tremendous unmet need for new treatment options.
"As a rare and chronic disease, a collective voice is needed to support the RRP patient community. This event provides an important platform for our community to help raise awareness about the experience and burden of living with a rare, chronic and debilitating disease like RRP," said Kim McClellan, Board President, RRPF. "We encourage anyone living with RRP, either as a patient, family member or caregiver, to join us to support our community."
"Building on last year's successful inaugural RRP Awareness Day, we are proud to join RRPF again to co-host this extraordinary event in a potentially game-changing year for RRP patients. For too long, the RRP community has lived without hope for a treatment that addresses the underlying cause of disease and without true recognition of the devastating nature of this disease. Instead, they have endured ongoing daily burdens to their lives coupled with endless surgeries, which carry tremendous risk for irreversible injury and other morbidities. With new research and innovations, we believe that hope is on the horizon and we invite you to join us on June 11th to support the RRP community," said Helen Sabzevari, PhD, President and CEO of Precigen.
To stay up-to-date with RRP Awareness Day activities and to register for the June 11th webcast, please visit www.RRPAwareness.org.
Precigen: Advancing Medicine with Precision® Precigen (Nasdaq: PGEN) is a dedicated discovery and clinical stage biopharmaceutical company advancing the next generation of gene and cell therapies using precision technology to target the most urgent and intractable diseases in our core therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Our technologies enable us to find innovative solutions for affordable biotherapeutics in a controlled manner. Precigen operates as an innovation engine progressing a preclinical and clinical pipeline of well-differentiated therapies toward clinical proof-of-concept and commercialization. For more information about Precigen, visit www.precigen.com or follow us on LinkedIn or YouTube.
About RRPF The Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis Foundation (RRPF) was created to provide family support; promote public awareness; and aid in the prevention, cure, and treatment of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a rare disease that affects the voice. The most common symptoms of RRP are a hoarse or strained voice, dysphonia (difficulty in speaking), or aphonia (loss of voice). The organization focuses primarily on networking within the RRP community, including patients, families, medical practitioners, and researchers. Its goal is to stimulate more RRP-related research that may lead to more effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure for this disease.
