Clinical Trial Stopped as Child Develops Leukaemia-like Disorder

The French Agency for Health and Product Safety has stopped a clinical trial after a child became ill with a leukaemia-like disorder.

Described as being a setback for bio-tech therapy, French researchers have suspended an experimental gene treatment to help infants born with a crippled immune system.

The trial had been the only gene treatment to reverse a life-threatening illness.

The technique aims at helping ‘bubble babies’ – children born with severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare inherited disease which is triggered by a defective gene in the X chromosome and only affects boys.

Eight children have been successfully treated as part of the trial, however, in a ninth patient, there has been uncontrolled proliferation of T-cells.