Somatic human genome editing has made huge strides in the past five years, but the likely extremely high prices will be unsustainable. A global commitment to affordable, equitable access is urgently needed because the costs and infrastructure needs of this form of treatment are not manageable for either patients or health care systems.
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the β-globin gene, and induction of fetal γ-globin is considered an established therapeutic strategy for the treatment of this disease. A research team led by scientists at Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has discovered RK-701, a small-molecule inhibitor of G9a and G9a-like protein (GLP) as a potential therapeutic agent for SCD.
Researchers from Beam Therapeutics Inc. presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of an engineered stem cell antibody paired evasion (ESCAPE) strategy for antibody (Ab)-mediated autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapy conditioning for the treatment of hemoglobinopathies.
The serious adverse event in the first phase I/II patient dosed with nulabeglogene autogedtemcel (nula-cel) – a gene editing, autologous hematopoietic stem cell therapy for sickle cell disease (SCD) – may have involved the quality of the stem cells and not the conditioning regimen or characteristics of the patient at baseline. But researchers won’t know until more work is done.
Jasper Therapeutics Inc. may have found a way around toxicity with current approaches in sickle cell disease (SCD) conditioning approaches, if phase I/II data with briquilimab stay consistent – and the drug already has proved itself across a range of indications. Wall Street liked the prospect, sending the Redwood City, Calif.-based firm’s shares (NASDAQ:JSPR) on a wild ride to close at $2.74, up $2.26, or 476%.
The primary reason for hospitalization of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) is an acute systemic painful vaso-occlusive episode (VOE), which serves as an antecedent to acute chest syndrome (ACS). It has been previously demonstrated that P-selectin-dependent neutrophil-platelet aggregation and the complement pathway activation contribute to the vaso-occlusive pathophysiology in SCD.
CRISPR gene editing has been one of the important advances of the last decade, in biotechnology and increasingly in medicine. First applied to human cells in 2013, and honored with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, its meteoric rise can make CRISPR look like the molecular equivalent of a miracle healer. But in the research and clinical trenches, CRISPR-based approaches, like any others, need to find applications where their desired effects outweigh their side effects. And finding those applications necessitates ways to identify off-target effects.
CRISPR-based cell therapies continued to gain steam Sept. 27 with the announcements of a potentially valuable big pharma collaboration and an ambitious global regulatory push.
Shares in Forma Therapeutics Holdings Inc. gained 51% as Novo Nordisk A/S made a $20-per-share offer that values the firm’s equity at $1.1 billion. The stock (NASDA:FMTX) had closed at $13.40 prior to the disclosure of the bid on Sept. 1. It closed the day at $20.24, up $6.84, suggesting at least some optimistic investors believe the final price could go higher.
