The European Commission has approved the first gene therapy in Europe, a treatment method that corrects errors in the genetic code of patients, reports the BBC.
The European Commission has granted marketing authorization for the Glybera product, meaning it will be available for sale in all EU member states. This is a gene therapy for a rare hereditary disease that prevents patients from properly digesting fats. The manufacturer, the Dutch company UniQure, announced that the product will be available on the market next year. Glybera is used to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency. One in a million people has defective copies of the gene that is crucial for fat breakdown. As a result, fats accumulate in the blood, causing abdominal pain and life-threatening pancreatitis. The therapy uses a virus to infect muscle cells with a working copy of the gene. The European Medicines Agency recommended in July that this therapy be made available to the most severe patients. UniQure has announced that it will seek approval for its product in the U.S., Canada, and other markets. China was the first in the world to officially approve gene therapy for cancer treatment in 2003.
