The Battle to Breathe

Once a death sentence that kept life expectancies from reaching much past childhood, cystic fibrosis now has a revolutionary and life-saving treatment. In 2019 Trikafta, a potent combination of three drugs, changed the course of the disease almost overnight. Now over 90% of people diagnosed with CF in the USA could have the opportunity for their lives to be transformed, and some who had once been gasping for breath have begun running marathons. THE BATTLE TO BREATHE follows how decades of scientific research, driven forward by desperate parents fighting for their children, led to this extraordinary breakthrough. Viewers will experience stories of joy, struggle, and unwavering hope.

THE BATTLE TO BREATHE features insights from experts including scientist Prof. Paul Quinton, who was born with CF and experimented on his own sweat ducts to solve the mystery of the disease’s mechanism; Dr. Jennifer L. Taylor, a pulmonary medicine professor at National Jewish Health, the largest adult center for cystic fibrosis in America; former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, one of the geneticists who discovered the CF gene; Dr. Michael J. Welsh, a University of Iowa professor whose research paved the way for CF drug development; Paul Negulescu, team leader at Vertex Pharmaceuticals who developed the revolutionary new CF drugs; and award-winning science journalist Bijal P. Trivedi, author of ‘Breath from Salt’ from which the documentary is partly derived.