US Biotech Firm Taps Sheba Medical Center For Blood Disorder Clinical Trials

December 25, 2017 | Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has been chosen by American biotechnology company BioMarin to conduct clinical trials and research of a breakthrough gene therapy product related to hemophilia. According to Gili Kenet, Director of the National Hemophilia Center at Sheba, the center will start enrolling patients in 2018, pending Ministry of Health approval. The gene therapy is said to be a “magic bullet” treatment for hemophilia A, a genetic blood disorder caused by missing or defective factor VIII, a clotting protein. The gene single therapy treatments use viruses to implant new genes into patient cells. An initial trial on nine patients has already been conducted by BioMarin. According to the report, all nine patients stopped using clotting factor drugs to treat their hemophilia and bleeding rates fell to almost zero. The National Hemophilia Center at Sheba Medical Center is an internationally recognized Hemophilia Training Center (HTC,) treating over 700 hemophiliacs a year.