Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) and CRISPR Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CRSP) announced today that the United Kingdom (U.K.) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted conditional marketing authorization for CASGEVY™ (exagamglogene autotemcel [exa-cel]), a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy, for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT).
CASGEVY has been authorized for the treatment of eligible patients 12 years of age and older with SCD with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) or TDT, for whom a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched related hematopoietic stem cell donor is not available. There are an estimated 2,000 patients eligible for CASGEVY in the U.K.
“Today is a historic day in science and medicine: this authorization of CASGEVY in Great Britain is the first regulatory authorization of a CRISPR-based therapy in the world,” said Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of Vertex.
“I hope this represents the first of many applications of this Nobel Prize winning technology to benefit eligible patients with serious diseases,” said Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics.”
In two global clinical trials of CASGEVY in SCD and TDT, the trials met their respective primary outcome of becoming free from severe VOCs or transfusion independent for at least 12 consecutive months. Once achieved, these benefits are potentially expected to be life-long. The safety profile of 97 SCD and TDT patients treated to date with CASGEVY in these ongoing studies is generally consistent with myeloablative conditioning with busulfan and hematopoietic stem cell transplant.
“This authorization offers a new option for eligible patients who are waiting for innovative therapies, and I look forward to patients having access to this therapy as quickly as possible,” said Professor Josu de la Fuente, Principal Investigator in the CLIMB-111 and CLIMB-121 studies, Professor of Practice (Cellular & Gene Therapy) at Imperial College London, and Consultant Haematologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
In the U.K., exa-cel was granted an Innovation Passport under the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP) from the MHRA, and Vertex is already working closely with national health authorities to secure access for eligible patients as quickly as possible.
