It appears gene therapies have had considerable problems making progress in the laboratory and with FDA approvals for clinical trials. Avigen, Inc., a company working on a gene therapy for Parkinson's Disease, announced it will not pursue gene therapies and will instead concentrate on traditional pharmaceutical approaches. The decision appears to have been made for financial instead of scientific reasons; however, research in gene therapies to date has been experiencing difficulties across the board. This leaves gene therapy for Parkinson's in the lurch, unless other investors step in. Avigen, Inc. has been pursuing this line of research since 1992. Before this announcement, another gene therapy research company, Targeted Genetics, announced that the cystic fibrosis gene therapy it has been pursuing has been unsuccessful in helping sufferers breathe better, and decided to abandon the research. And prior to this the FDA had halted yet another gene therapy program after three test subjects developed cancer. Before the announcement by Avigen, Dr. Krys Bankiewicz, a professor of neurological surgery at University of California, San Francisco, was about to embark on FDA-approved clinical trials in humans for a gene therapy treatment of PD. The therapy had successfully restored the effectiveness of levodopa after long-term use of the drug in animals. The FDA has not authorized a single gene
Read the article, Parkinson's treatment left in limbo, by Judy Silber of the Contra Costa Times.
