witnesses today of the parent project muscular dystrophy, and i might say pat is accompanied by mary bono mac, a former member of this committee. welcome, mary. and pat will explain how this organization was founded to create opportunities for families waiting for therapies to develop muscular dystrophy from claiming young lives. to quote pat fur long, patient focused drug development acknowledges the need of input from patients and caregivers to create a more complete assessment of the benefit risk equation encouraging predictability and increased flexibility within the review process. the clock is tick iing for patit who is need and deserve access to promising therapies, end quote. i would like to applaud her tireless work drafting guidance ppmd recently released that quantifies patient priorities and preferences. this guidance will serve the community and every other patient community because it provides a path for other patient groups to follow. this was an enormous undertaking and i'm confident it will make a substantial contribution to the entire medical community. i want to welcome our