Perguntas frequentes

Extraordinary Measures is based on The Cure, by Wall Street journalist Geeta Anand. The screenplay was written by American screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs.

Pompe's disease, also known as Glycogen storage disease type II or acid maltase deficiency, affects the muscle and nerve cells of the body by an accumulation of glycogen (the way that body energy is stored) which cannot be broken down. It is named after Johann Pompe, who characterized the disease in 1932.

The film doesn't really explain this but there are two types of Pompe's disease, infantile and late onset. The infantile means they are so deficient in the needed enzyme that they would usually die within a year or two (due to enlarged hearts, among other things) unless given the drug myozyme, which has kept these babies alive much longer. The life expectancy of these infantile patients is unknown since the drug only came out a few years ago. Late onset Pompe disease means that the patient has enough enzyme to live until muscle weakness and waste starts at a later stage ranging from the ages of 2 to 70. With the drug and a special diet and exercise, they can live a normal amount. In real life, most children with Pompe die before age 2, and those in the story were 15 months and 7 days old when they got sick, and 5 and 4 years old when they began treatment. With children that young, the drama would have focused on the parents. By making Megan Crowley a wise and cheerful 9-year-old, Extraordinary Measures improves her as a story element.