As expected, the Telethon counter looks rather grim this year.
58.29 million euros in pledges were collected during a 34th edition marked by the cancellation due to confinement of the events that symbolize this charitable marathon.
This amount is down sharply from the total of 74.6 million euros raised during the Telethon in 2019 and 87 million in total (Internet or telephone donations will continue this year until December 11).
"In this health context which has led to the cancellation of a very large number of events in towns and villages, the French have attended this exceptional Telethon: that of the greatest victories in its history" , all the same welcomed the organizers in a press release this Sunday.
At the end of the program, the # Téléthon2020 displays a counter of € 58,290,120.
This Telethon was the one of the greatest victories in its history!
Thanks to @MPokora, exceptional sponsor 💛
Thanks to the @francetele teams for this unforgettable program 💛https: //t.co/vJycI4zOlN pic.twitter.com/zXCT0DEQ3R
- AFM-Telethon (@Telethon_France) December 6, 2020
The fundraising event for research on rare diseases, launched Friday evening, was reduced this year to its retransmission on the channels of France Televisions and challenges on the Internet.
Some 80% of the usual animations have been canceled because of the restrictions imposed by the fight against the Covid.
The land, "40% of the collection"
“Usually, there are 12,000 municipalities participating in the Telethon, ie one in three, 250,000 volunteers and 5 million French people.
The vast majority of these events are prevented today ”, had underlined earlier this week the president of the organization AFM-Telethon, Laurence Tiennot-Herment.
However, “the land is 40% of the collection”, and in particular “the addition of very small donations”, she argued.
"The Telethon is also a social link, and the Covid is synonymous with social distancing: obviously it is contradictory", she regretted.
Despite this particular context, the Telethon celebrated an important anniversary this year: the 30th anniversary of Généthon, the cutting-edge laboratory that this charitable marathon made it possible to finance.
Inaugurated on December 8, 1990, it has enabled several advances in gene therapy, which consists of introducing genetic material into cells to treat a disease.
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He published the first maps of the human genome in the 90s. And last year, the first drug resulting from research conducted at Genethon obtained marketing authorization in the United States, before Japan and Europe. this year.
This treatment, Zolgensma (Novartis laboratory), can treat spinal muscular atrophy, a neuromuscular disease that condemned babies to early death.
An international trial launched in early 2021
Of the eleven drug-genes approved worldwide today, "four are the direct result of our research or our funding" and five are indirectly linked to it, according to the AFM-Telethon.
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Success that perhaps calls for others.
Genethon has just obtained the green light from the French Medicines Agency (ANSM) to start a gene therapy trial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease emblematic of Telethon.
The international trial, which is scheduled to start in February, will look at young boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the UK, US, Israel and France.