It will move the IL-12 drug and other cancer gene therapy approaches through human trials while Intrexon continues to work on basic science.
For acquired diseases, such as cancer, gene-therapy trials are introducing genes that are intended to kill cancerous cells.
ECONOMIST: The prospects for using genes as a therapy may be improving
Also in the 1990s, Novartis cut back on its gene therapy effort after gene therapy trial for cancer failed badly.
Most work in gene therapy is centred on cancer.
ECONOMIST: The prospects for using genes as a therapy may be improving
It turned out that the virus used to deliver the gene therapy was also inserting itself into cancer-causing areas of the genome, and not just where it was needed to cure the kids.
In China, Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech won approval for a gene therapy drug for head and neck cancer in 2003 but no products have been approved until now in Europe or the United States.
It is the first time that gene therapy has been used successfully to treat cancer.
It is hoped that gene therapy will have fewer associated side effects by targeting cancer cells.
Professor Nevin said that cancer was always seen as a possible side-effect of this type of gene therapy.
In 2003 the company's treatment for head and neck cancer, which accounts for about 10% of the 2.5m new cancer patients in China every year, gained the first commercial approval of a gene-therapy treatment.
ECONOMIST: The prospects for using genes as a therapy may be improving
Researchers reported fresh evidence Wednesday that using gene therapy to manipulate the immune system is emerging as a promising new strategy in the fight against cancer.
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