FDA approves historic 'living drug' treatment to fight childhood leukemia


Opening a new era in cancer care, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek out and destroy childhood leukemia . The CAR-T cell treatment developed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. and the University of Pennsylvania is the first type of gene therapy to hit the U.S. market - and one in a powerful but expensive wave of custom-made "living drugs" being tested against blood cancers and some tumors.



from Biotech News