As I first wrote back in July (Update 12: First Gene Therapy Approval on the Horizon), the first approval of a gene therapy application in medicine was expected soon. It has now been accomplished. On November 2nd, the European Medicines Agency gave final approval to a gene therapy approach to treat a rare genetic disease.
The therapy, given approval in Europe, called Glybera, was developed by uniQure, a Dutch company. It treats lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a disease that affects only several hundred people in the European Union and a similar number in North America.
Glybera (alipogene (Read more...)