Avidity's Planned MDA 2026 Presentations

Avidity Biosciences’ press release outlines its planned presence at the 2026 MDA Clinical & Scientific Conference, scheduled for March 8–11, 2026, in Orlando, Florida, including one oral presentation, six poster presentations, and an Avidity-sponsored industry forum lunch. Much of the program centers on del-zota (delpacibart zotadirsen; AOC 1044) in people living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy with mutations amenable to exon 44 skipping (DMD44), alongside additional topics in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).

The oral session is described as a 1-year clinical update from Avidity’s Phase 1/2 EXPLORE44 program evaluating del-zota in participants with DMD44. In the session description, the company states that del-zota treatment is associated with near normalization of creatine kinase levels and improvements in key functional outcomes at 1 year, and it frames these as the focus of the talk. The presenter is listed as Craig McDonald, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Director of the Neuromuscular Disease Clinic at the University of California, Davis. In the announcement, this oral listing is positioned as the main clinical-data presentation tied to EXPLORE44.

Six posters are listed across patient experience research, disease biology, and clinical-trial development and translational readouts. Two posters are described as interview-based work in DM1: one on the patient journey among individuals with DM1, and another on experiences with DM1 and treatment with del-desiran, including interviews with participants in MARINA-OLE and their caregivers. For FSHD, the release lists a poster on DUX4-driven downstream regulation of KHDC1L in FSHD cell line models and a separate systematic literature review describing the humanistic burden of FSHD. For DMD44 trial development, Avidity lists a SAFARI44 poster describing the design of a Phase 3 global study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of del-zota in treating DMD44, and it also lists an EXPLORE44 muscle RNASeq analysis poster described as reporting improvements in inflammatory and fibrotic disease signatures. Beyond the trial-design wording in one poster title, the listings do not describe adverse events or safety outcomes, and the posters are characterized as spanning patient-reported experience, model-system work, and planned or ongoing clinical-trial materials.

The announcement also describes an Avidity-hosted industry forum lunch during the conference titled “Biomarker Advancements in Rare Neuromuscular Disease: Insights from DMD and FSHD,” with date, time, and room location specified. According to the release, the forum features two guest speakers: Aravindhan Veerapandiyan, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and Stephen Tapscott, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Human Biology and Clinical Research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Participation is described as open to all MDA Conference registered attendees.

Key Takeaways:

• The company’s listing for the 1-year EXPLORE44 oral presentation describes del-zota as being associated with near normalization of creatine kinase and improvements in key functional outcomes in DMD44.
• Poster topics in the announcement span DM1 patient/caregiver interview studies (including MARINA-OLE participants), FSHD model and literature-review work, a SAFARI44 Phase 3 design poster for del-zota in DMD44, and an EXPLORE44 muscle RNASeq poster described as showing improved inflammatory and fibrotic signatures.
• An Avidity-sponsored lunch forum titled “Biomarker Advancements in Rare Neuromuscular Disease” is described as featuring two guest speakers and being open to registered conference attendees.