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FDA Considers First CRISPR Gene Editing Treatment That May Cure Sickle Cell
Tuesday November 21, 2023. 08:00 AM , from Slashdot
![]() In company studies, the treatment was considered safe, and it had a 'highly positive benefit-risk for patients with severe sickle cell disease,' Dr. Stephanie Krogmeier, vice president for global regulatory affairs with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, told the panel. Thirty-nine of the 40 people tested with the treatment did not have a single vaso-occlusive crisis, which means the misshapen red blood cells block normal circulation and can cause moderate to severe pain. It's the top reason patients with sickle cell go to the emergency room or are hospitalized. Before the treatment, patients experienced about four of these painful crises a year, resulting in about two weeks in the hospital. The FDA sought the independent panel's advice, in part, because this would be the first time the FDA would approve a treatment that uses CRISPR technology, but Dr. Fyodor Urnov, a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, reminded the committee CRISPR has been around for 30 years and, in that time, scientists have learned a lot about how to use it safely. 'The technology is, in fact, ready for primetime,' Urnov said. With this kind of genetic editing, scientists could inadvertently make a change to a patient's DNA that is off-target, and the therapy could harm the patient. The FDA is expected to make an approval decision by December 8. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/11/21/056201/fda-considers-first-crispr-gene-editing-treatment...
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