Editas and Allergan Make Gene-Editing History With First Treatment of Blindness Drug

Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT) and Allergan (NYSE: AGN) announced on Wednesday morning that they had just treated the first patient with Editas' flagship drug candidate EDIT-101 as part of the Brilliance phase 1/2 clinical trial. The new experimental gene-editing drug targets a rare eye disorder known as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA).

What makes this particular treatment noteworthy is that it's the first time a patient's genes are being modified within the body, also known as an in vivo treatment. In comparison, most gene-editing drugs operate on an ex vivo basis, where targeted cells are removed from the patient first before they are modified and later returned. The trial will be testing 18 LCA patients to see how they respond to EDIT-101, which will be administered via a subretinal injection.

Image source: Getty Images.

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