Gene Therapy Side Effects May Be Reduced by Hansa's Enzyme Therapy

An enzyme therapy developed by Swedish biotech Hansa Biopharma could help to mitigate some of the serious side effects seen with gene therapies such as Sarepta’s gene therapy Elevidys for treatment of the rare neuromuscular genetic disorder Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Hansa has announced positive results for three patients eligible for Elevidys, who were first given the enzyme therapy imlifidase to reduce the chances of an immune reaction to the gene therapy.

The patients all showed evidence of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector-mediated transduction and expression of micro-dystrophin after treatment with Elevidys, albeit at slightly lower levels than seen in other trials. Notably, no adverse effects were reported in the patients in the study.

Hansa’s imlifidase is a recombinant cys