A new innovative treatment for sickle cell disease will now be offered to patients in the NHS for the first time.
A treatment, costing £1.65 provides hope for patients with severe sickle cell disease.
Approximately 50 people will receive the treatment yearly, as per Sky News.
Around 1,700 people are expected to receive the treatment after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved Casgevy for use in some patients who have the genetic condition.
Professor Bob Klaber, director of strategy, research and innovation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust - which led the UK arm of the clinical trials for exa-cel, said, "Together with patients and industry partners, we are proud to be part of the groundbreaking research and international academic collaboration that has made this treatment possible.”
The statement added, “The treatment is an example of true medical innovation and will provide patients with no other options a potential cure for the painful, debilitating symptoms of their diseases. It also offers promising research avenues for other genetic diseases."
Casgevy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for its investors.
The treatment works by fixing the defective gene in a patient’s stem cells and is used for patients who need a stem cell transplant but cannot find a suitable donor.
In clinical trials, all patients who received the extra-cel treatment did not need to be hospitalized for a year.
Additionally, almost 98% of the patients continued to stay out of the hospital even about 3.5 years later.
