Dr Kunal Potnis, a resident physician at Yale New Haven Hospital, Connecticut, and Dr George Goshua, a haematologist-oncologist at Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut, discuss the potential for an equity- approach in order to deliver CRISPR-based therapies worldwide.
The first approved CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy is designed to provide treatment for sickle cell disease (see BioNews 1216 and 1220), a disease most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that comprises low- and middle-income countries where patients are least likely to be able to afford the new treatment.
They write '… the multimillion-dollar price tag of new therapies, particularly when they are designed to treat diseases most prevalent in economically disadvantaged regions, calls into question how useful CRISPR/Cas9 therapies will ultimately prove.'
Read more in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.