FIRST CANCER "LIVING DRUG" GETS GO-AHEAD
First cancer 'living drug' gets go-ahead
The US has approved the first treatment to redesign a patient's own immune system so it attacks cancer. The regulator - the US Food and Drug Administration - said its decision was a "historic" moment and medicine was now "entering a new frontier". The therapy, which will be marketed as Kymriah, works against acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
The company Novartis is charging $475,000 (£367,000) for the "living drug" therapy, which leaves 83% of people free of a type of blood cancer. Doctors in the UK said the announcement was an exciting step forward. The living drug is tailor-made to each patient, unlike conventional therapies such as surgery or chemotherapy.
It is called CAR-T and is made by extracting white blood cells from the patient's blood. The cells are then genetically reprogrammed to seek out and kill cancer. The cancer-killers are then put back inside the patient and once they find their target they multiply.
COMMENT, UP-VOTE and RE-STEEM
Medicine is undergoing a profound change. Over the next 10 years, the biotech arent could well be one of the hottest there are. Genetic research and CRISPR therapies will end up altering the way we treat people. We will look at the last 20 years as the dark age of medicine.