MAGIC Foundation

The MAGIC foundation for children's growth is an American non-profit organization which helps families of children diagnosed with a wide variety of different growth impacting medical conditions through education, networking, physician referrals and numerous other services. It was founded in 1989.[1][2] It is maintained through a network of volunteers and a full-time staff of five people. MAGIC is short for Major Aspects of Growth In Children.[3]

The foundation has a membership network in excess of 25,000 families. The disorders MAGIC families have are grouped into primary categories. They include: congenital adrenal hyperplasia, precocious puberty, growth hormone deficiency (both adults and children), panhypopituitarism, McCune-Albright syndrome, Turner syndrome, Russell-Silver syndrome, thyroid disorders (both congenital and acquired), optic nerve hypoplasia, and other rare disorders.[3]

Educational programs

MAGIC offers a national educational program every year for the families of affected children and another for affected adults. Physicians specialising in these disorders, from all over the world, volunteer to speak to and assist the children and affected adults. They also offer a weekly email with links to recently published medical information to parents of children impacted by Small for Gestational Age babies, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, McCune-Albright Syndrome, Russell-Silver Syndrome (also known as Silver-Russell Syndrome), Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, Septo Optic Hyperplasia, Hypophosphatasia, and others.

Controversy

The MAGIC Foundation received significant funding from Genentech and Eli Lilly. It was thought that the money was to undertake case finding of children with short stature who might benefit from their human growth hormone treatments.[4] The US Food and Drug Administration investigated Genentech in 1992 and 1994 for using numerous charities to improperly advertise this medication. None of the monies donated to either the Human Growth Foundation nor The Magic foundation were donated with any stipulations as to how the money was to be utilized. The donations were support funds for the patients affected.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ NORD Guide. National Organization for Rare Disorders. 1997. Established in 1989, the MAGIC Foundation for Children's Growth assists families of affected children through local support groups, public education and awareness, newsletters, specialty divisions, and programs for children, ...
  2. ↑ Betty M. Adelson (2005). Dwarfism: medical and psychosocial aspects of profound short stature. JHU Press. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-0-8018-8121-3. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
  3. 1 2 "MAGIC Foundation". MAGIC Foundation. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  4. ↑ Melody Petersen (2009). Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-312-42825-1. In a campaign in the early 1990s the Magic Foundation, as well as another group, the Human Growth Foundation, had measured the height of children in ... Since then, the Magic Foundation had continued to accept money from Genentech ...
  5. ↑ Kathleen Day (16 August 1994). "Genentech, Nonprofit Link Studied; Agencies Probe Whether Foundation Helped Sales". Washington Post. Washington, D.C.

External links

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