India's first gene therapy offers new hope to haemophilia patients

In a significant medical breakthrough, India's first human gene therapy with a lentiviral vector for severe haemophilia-A has been found to be successful with zero bleeding rate in patients.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @Bhubaneswar

Haemophilia is a serious bleeding disorder caused by blood deficiency of clotting factors (factor VIII and factor IX proteins). It can lead to spontaneous bleeding episodes, joint damage, and a reduced quality of life for patients and their families.

The new gene therapy has shown promising results during the first phase trial on five patients, aged between 22 and 41. The annualised bleeding rate has been observed to be zero in all five patients over a cumulative follow-up of 81 months.

Supported by the Department of Biotechnology, this first-in-human gene therapy for haemophilia-A patients, has been developed by Centre for Stem Cell Research (CSCR) at CMC, Vellore. Results of the study conducted on the patients have been published in the recent edition of New England Journal of Medicine.