ASTCT logo The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy is an international professional membership association.
CHICAGO, December 13, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy® (ASTCT®) recognizes the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recently granted approval for two gene therapies aimed at treating Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Casgevy, developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Lyfgenia, developed by Bluebird Bio Inc., have been granted regulatory clearance for these therapies by the FDA after successful clinical trials and extensive review processes.
SCD is a genetically inherited red blood cell disorder. According to the Centers for Disease Control, SCD disproportionately affects Black or African American and Hispanic Americans in the United States. SCD affects an estimated 100,000 people in the United States, affecting one out of every 365 Black or African American births and one out of every 16,300 Hispanic American births.
ASTCT is a professional organization of health care professionals dedicated to the research, science and application of hematopoietic cell transplantation and related cellular therapies.
“Gene therapy offers a revolutionary approach to treating genetic diseases like sickle cell disease that have, in many cases, been deemed untreatable,” said Miguel-Angel Perales, MD, ASTCT President. “As is the case for many novel therapies, one of the challenges is ensuring that our patients have access to these potentially life-saving treatments. ASTCT strives to provide research and to address disparities in access to care and treatment for blood-related diseases and disorders.”
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About ASTCT
The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy is an international professional membership association of more than 3,700 physicians, investigators and other health care professionals from more than 45 countries. Our mission is dedicated to improving the application and success of hematopoietic cell transplantation and related cellular therapies. We strive to be the leading organization promoting research, education and clinical practice in the field. Visit www.astct.org.
Contact Information:
Jennifer Kasowicz
ASTCT Marketing Director [email protected]
(312) 673-4970
Gb Sciences is focusing considerable resources on bringing its lead Parkinson's disease formulations to the clinic with promising results; plus, new data validating the efficacy of their novel anxiety formulations and demonstrating the improved stability of their oral nanoparticle-encapsulated chronic pain formulations add value to their drug development pipeline.
"Gb Sciences is focusing considerable resources on bringing our lead Parkinson's disease formulations to the clinic with promising results already obtained during the formulation of Oral Dissolving Tablets containing our active ingredients for use in human clinical trials," said Dr. Andrea Small-Howard, President, Chief Science Officer, and Director of Gb Sciences. "We have new data validating the efficacy of our novel anxiety formulations in an animal model, as well as new data demonstrating the improved stability of our oral nanoparticle-encapsulated chronic pain formulations based on newly-adopted manufacturing control processes."
The full article entitled "Unlocking the Therapeutic Potential of Plant-Inspired Minimum Essential Mixtures" also provides some context for their recent drug development successes by discussing Gb Sciences' evolution from a cannabis company to a plant-inspired biopharmaceutical company and what makes their drug development approach truly unique. With conventional drug discovery efforts failing to deliver on some critical medical needs, such as non-opioid treatments for chronic pain, there may be value in exploring plants associated with traditional medicines to discover new drug molecules and simplified mixtures. Gb Sciences is connecting plant-based medicine with modern in silico drug discovery tools, leveraging a unique AI-enabled platform to mine plant species and compounds to uncover minimum essential mixtures of molecules with therapeutic benefits and reduced side effect profiles.
Gb Sciences, Inc. is a plant-inspired, biopharmaceutical research and development company creating patented, disease-targeted formulations of cannabis- and other plant-inspired therapeutic mixtures for the prescription drug market through its Canadian subsidiary, GbS Global Biopharma, Inc. The 'plant-inspired' active ingredients in its therapeutic mixtures are synthetic homologues identical to the original plant compounds but produced under current Good Manufacturing Practices. Gb Sciences' intellectual property portfolio contains six issued U.S. and three issued foreign patents, as well as 17 U.S. and 51 foreign patent-pending applications. In its drug development pipeline, Gb Sciences has five preclinical phase product development programs. Gb Sciences' lead program for Parkinson's disease is being prepared for a first-in-human clinical trial. Gb Sciences' formulations for chronic pain, anxiety, and depression are currently in preclinical animal studies with researchers at the National Research Council Canada. The company also received positive preclinical proof-of-concept data supporting its complex mixtures for the treatment of Cytokine Release Syndrome related to COVID-19, and its lead candidates will be optimized based on late-stage preclinical studies at Michigan State University. Gb Sciences' productive research and development network includes distinguished universities, hospitals, and Contract Research Organizations. To learn more, visit www.gbsciences.com.
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