1st quarter 2004

Gene therapy on the way

Gene therapy will start to offer its first products in 2005 or 2006 and the market will be worth some US$5.6bn by 2009. Frost & Sullivan, a market research company, estimates that there are currently over 300 companies conducting research in the field of gene therapy, with over 500 clinical tests in progress.

Research into gene therapy has been going on for over 30 years. The first - albeit unauthorised - test on humans was conducted as far back as 1980. In the 1990s there were literally hundreds of smaller studies carried out. 1999 saw the low point in gene therapy research with the death of J. Gelsinger, a teenager who took part in a study. However, this was followed by the first great breakthrough: 16 children received successful experimental gene therapy with SCID-X. With conventional therapy, four or five of the 16 would have probably died. Unfortunately, this was followed by further disappointment: Of the 16 patients, two developed a relatively benign leukaemia caused by the gene therapy they had received.

Gene therapy has since shown that it works in principle and is relatively successful in treating serious diseases, admittedly with sometimes rather unpleasant side effects.