Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
One-Shot Gene Therapy Cure $665K
GlaxoSmithKline is offering a one-shot cure, called Strimveli, for a bone marrow disease called ADA-SCID, a sometimes fatal inability to fight infections. The cost: $665,000, making it the most expensive one-time treatment sold by any drug firm. (But it comes with a guarantee.)
“We do not expect to recover all of the costs of building a platform to deliver gene and cell therapy from Strimvelis alone,” says Anna Padula, a spokesperson for GSK’s rare-diseases group. “We hope that Strimvelis will be the first of a number of innovative gene-therapy medicines that we will bring to patients.” The company recognizes, she adds, “that the industry will need to adapt the way in which medicines are priced and funded.”
In reading about this, I was reminded of the cure offered to Case, the protagonist of William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer. It's not a very close match, but the idea of a single treatment offering a complete cure is striking. Case had been given a mycotoxin that burned out subtle areas of his nervous system and his ability to jack into cyberspace was lost.
"It'll work, Case. You got no idea, the kind of stuff Armitage has. Like he's gonna pay these nerve boys for fixing you with th program he's giving them to tell them how to do it...
Cold steel odor. Ice caressed his spine.
Then black fire found the branching tributaries of the nerves...
He woke... "My back hurts."
That's where they replaced your fluid... some new stuff patched into your liver. The nerve stuff, I dunno. Lot of injections. They didn't have to open anything up for the main show..."
Read about other gene therapies at Gene Therapy Could Restore Hearing To The Deaf and Gene Therapy Builds Muscles Fast.
Via Technology Review.
The idea behind gene therapy is that a one-time correction to a patient’s DNA will lead to a lifelong cure. Strimvelis is the first treatment to be commercialized that lives up to the promise. But potential cures for hemophilia, a rare eye disease, and a fatal brain illness could reach the market next, and they could be similarly expensive.
"What would you say if I told you we could correct the damage, Case?" Ermitage suddenly looked to Case as if he were carved from a block of metal; inert, enormously heavy...
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/4/2016)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965.
ErythroMer Artificial Blood
'My chemists are all working on the preparation of the artificial blood.' - Dr. David H. Keller, M.D.
MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'- Alfred Bester, 1956.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
