CHMP endorses review finding no link between viral vector in Zynteglo and blood cancer

The European Medicines Agency’s ’s human medicines committee, CHMP, has endorsed findings of a review which concluded that there is no evidence Zynteglo causes a blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Zynteglo (autologous CD34+ cells encoding βA-T87Q-globin gene), a gene therapy for the blood disorder beta thalassaemia, uses a viral vector (or modified virus) to deliver a working gene into the patient’s blood cells.

In June 2019, The European Commission (EC) granted conditional marketing authorization for Zynteglo to the drug’s developer, USA-based bluebird bio (Nasdaq: BLUE).