FOUR months after six healthy people almost died in clinical trials, the company developing the experimental drug they were given has gone bust. But this does not necessarily spell the end for similar therapies designed to reboot the immune system.
鈥淭he unforeseeable adverse reactions caused by TGN1412 have made it impossible to attract the investment necessary for the company to continue operations,鈥� says a statement issued by TeGenero of W眉rzburg, Germany, on 4 July.
鈥淭he drug was designed to dampen the immune system. Instead it triggered a storm鈥�
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The drug was designed to damp down the immune system to combat immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Instead it had the opposite effect, triggering a massive immune 鈥渟torm鈥� (New Scientist, 25 March, p 10). All six patients have now been discharged from Northwick Park Hospital in London.
Funding for such drugs is likely to continue. 鈥淐hief executives of companies and researchers are asking themselves difficult questions in the light of this incident,鈥� says William Powlett Smith at analyst Ernst & Young in Reading, UK, 鈥渂ut I鈥檓 not aware of any investors having taken fright.鈥�
