GoKawiil
Tech News
Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb have both suspended clinical trials of experimental autoimmune therapies after participants died or suffered life-threatening reactions. The companies are now investigating what caused the treatments, once seen as promising, to turn dangerous.
A phase of clinical testing involving sixteen patients with multiple sclerosis and related autoimmune disorders showed symptom improvement after researchers used a modified virus to instruct T cells inside the body to produce chimeric antigen receptors, targeting the B cells responsible for autoimmune attacks. The findings, published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine, mark one of the first demonstrations that CAR-T therapy can be generated directly inside a patient rather than engineered in a lab and reinfused.
Novartis suspended eight clinical trials testing a cell therapy for autoimmune and neurological conditions after three participants died in late August. The company has not disclosed the cause of death or which specific therapy is affected beyond confirming the pause across all related studies.
A new study found that people living within five miles of the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory report higher rates of autoimmune and endocrine disorders than the general population. The site, located outside Los Angeles, suffered a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959 and has since been the subject of long-running contamination concerns. Researchers say the elevated health reports suggest lingering effects from the decades-old incident.