It’s not the technology of gene therapy but the regulation of clinical trials that we should be most afraid of, says Apoorva Mandavilli.

Almost exactly seven years after the first death in a gene-therapy trial, another unexpected death hit the field late last month – followed quickly by panic, outrage and some calls for an end to gene therapy altogether.

But to blame and ban all gene therapy because of this would be rash and misguided. And it might risk missing the point. What we should be most outraged and scared by is the way this trial took place — and the similar mis-steps that seem to accompany a vast number of clinical trials, gene therapy or no gene therapy.

Read the column here.

It’s not the technology of gene therapy but the regulation of clinical trials that we should be most afraid of, says Apoorva Mandavilli.

Almost exactly seven years after the first death in a gene-therapy trial, another unexpected death hit the field late last month – followed quickly by panic, outrage and some calls for an end to gene therapy altogether.

But to blame and ban all gene therapy because of this would be rash and misguided. And it might risk missing the point. What we should be most outraged and scared by is the way this trial took place — and the similar mis-steps that seem to accompany a vast number of clinical trials, gene therapy or no gene therapy.

Read the column here.