Chiesi abandons gene therapy. Flop of the most expensive drug in history

Fedaisf editorial staff

August 21, 2017

The market did not like the most expensive drug in history, so Chiesi pharmaceuticals decided to abandon the gene therapy sector

Posted by Editorial board hon 20/08/2017 – ParmaQuotidiano.info

Two years ago, with an investment of 31 million euros, the pharmaceutical industry of Pama had acquired the marketing rights in Italy and in Europe of Glybera, the first drug in the world that uses gene therapy: it modifies the DNA of patients, definitively erasing the defect at the base of these disturbances. An exceptional thing, also in terms of price: one million euros per treatment. (READ HERE)

Glybera is used for people with familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency, a rare disease that prevents normal management of ingested fats, causing attacks of pancreatitis. But the results expected from the marketing of the new drug were disappointing, so Chiesi decided to abandon the sector.

Fourteen of the 31 million invested in 2005 were used to support new research for other drugs based on gene therapy, which are being carried out by a Dutch company called Uniqure, which after Glybera is looking for a treatment for haemophilia B, a blood clotting disorder.

In the past weeks, Chiesi has decided not to continue the collaboration with Uniqure: it will no longer bear the enormous research costs for new gene therapies. Glybera had already been withdrawn from the market in recent months: only one treatment had been sold in two years.

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