Posted on: 3 May 2017, source: Rare Disease Report
Before March, only 1 patient had ever been treated via commercial gene therapy. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) doubled that total with their announcement this week. In 2015, a European patient with familial chylomicromenia received Glybera to restore their LPL enzyme levels. On Tuesday, GSK announced that it treated its first patient in March, almost a full calendar year after their drug, Strimvelis, was approved for sale. Strimvelis is assumed to provide an outright cure for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency due to Adenosine Deaminase deficiency (ADA-SCID), a rare disorder caused by the absence of the essential protein adenosine deaminase (ADA). ADA is required to produce lymphocytes. It leaves babies without a fully-functioning immune system and extremely vulnerable to infections.