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

N 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.

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.