Nonsense mutations are implicated in 5-70 % of individual cases of most inherited diseases, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and cystic fibrosis. Ataluren (Translarna™) is an orally available, small molecule compound that targets nonsense mutations, and is the first drug in its class. Ataluren appears to allow cellular machinery to read through premature stop codons in mRNA, enabling the translation process to produce full-length, functional proteins. This article summarizes the milestones in the development of ataluren leading to its conditional first approval for nonsense mutation DMD.