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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (7726)	1/15/2003 11:44:11 AM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52153

The moratorium appears to be on using "retroviral vectors to insert genes into blood stem cells." But of course with a retroviral vector I'm not sure you can easily limit where the gene ends up. Off the top of my head because I don't follow gene therapy much at all, I would guess that they are concerned that this is a reaction to the vector itself, or at least the vector/payload combination. I would further guess that naked DNA is inherently "cleaner." Peter

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (7726)	1/15/2003 11:53:50 AM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Ashley, the ban appears to only be on retroviruses. If memory serves (it does not always serve well) the first death from gene therapy in Philadelphia involved a retrovirus. Thereafter, a lot of gene therapists began using different vectors, such as adenoviruses and their ilk. A retrovirus contains RNA as its genetic material, which is why Vical's approach would not be likely to run into this problem, at least not by the same mechanism. I'm obviously no expert, and welcome corrections and clarifications. Cheers, Tuck