This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
New therapy effectively cures haemophilia B
According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a new therapy has effectively cured people with haemophilia B.
The therapy works by correcting a genetic defect that means people's blood struggles to clot and stop bleeding.
Normally, when you cut yourself, clotting factors mix with platelets to stop the bleeding - but people with haemophilia don't have these clotting factors, putting them at risk of heavy bleeding.
Around 85 per cent of those living with haemophilia have haemophilia A, caused by a lack of the blood clotting factor VIII, whereas haemophilia B is caused by a lack of factor IX.
With the new therapy, a team from the Royal Free Hospital and University College London say the majority of adults living with haemophilia B could be cured in three years.
The trial involved giving participants an engineered virus which delivered instructions for producing the missing factor IX gene to the liver, which then triggers the production of the clotting protein.
It is not yet known how long the treatment remains effective for, though estimates suggest it would be at least a decade.
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