Spoiler alert: I wouldn't want any other country to follow the example of China. Sometimes, human lives are more important than KPIs and being first...
Some interesting parts:
> The Chinese ministry of health has to approve all gene-therapy clinical trials in China, but these regulations appear relatively relaxed. According to the WSJ, at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, for example, a proposal to test a cancer treatment that modifies patients’ immune cells was approved in a single afternoon. One member of the hospital’s approval committee told the WSJ that she did not really understand the science laid out for her in a 100-page document, but was told that the side effects were mild. This was enough for her to give it the go-ahead.
...
> China is taking the lead in the global race to perfect gene therapies.
> Scientists have genetically engineered the cells of at least 86 cancer and HIV patients in the country using Crispr-Cas9 technology since 2015, the Wall Street Journal reports (paywall). Although no formal scientific papers have been written about these experiments, doctors told journalists at the WSJ that some patients have improved. There have also been least 15 deaths, seven of which were in one trial.
Spoiler alert: I wouldn't want any other country to follow the example of China. Sometimes, human lives are more important than KPIs and being first...
Some interesting parts:
> The Chinese ministry of health has to approve all gene-therapy clinical trials in China, but these regulations appear relatively relaxed. According to the WSJ, at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, for example, a proposal to test a cancer treatment that modifies patients’ immune cells was approved in a single afternoon. One member of the hospital’s approval committee told the WSJ that she did not really understand the science laid out for her in a 100-page document, but was told that the side effects were mild. This was enough for her to give it the go-ahead.
...
> China is taking the lead in the global race to perfect gene therapies.
> Scientists have genetically engineered the cells of at least 86 cancer and HIV patients in the country using Crispr-Cas9 technology since 2015, the Wall Street Journal reports (paywall). Although no formal scientific papers have been written about these experiments, doctors told journalists at the WSJ that some patients have improved. There have also been least 15 deaths, seven of which were in one trial.
86 (!!!) patients.