China to begin gene-based cancer therapy

SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- China has officially approved a new gene-based cancer therapy it says achieved promising results in clinical trials.

New Scientist magazine reported Wednesday the treatment, called gendicine, will be launched commercially in January by SiBiono GeneTech of Shenzhen, in China's Guangdong province.

The results of the clinical trials are expected to be published next month in China's national medical journal.

Gendicine's approval was announced more than a month ago, but went largely unnoticed outside China.

However, French Anderson of the University of Southern California, a renowned gene therapy pioneer, visited SiBiono earlier this year and also met the head of the Chinese drug approval agency.

Said Anderson: "The Chinese did evaluate this in considerable detail, so this was not a trivial approval. This was a serious in-depth analysis."

The treatment consists of an adenovirus designed to insert a gene called p53. This gene codes for a protein that triggers cell suicide when cells start to run amok, preventing them becoming cancerous.