Graphite Bio be­gins SCD cell ther­a­py tri­al; Syn­thet­ic Bi­o­log­ic­s' fu­ture rests on VCN ac­qui­si­tion

Graphite Bio has dosed its first sick­le cell dis­ease pa­tient with its cell ther­a­py, the Bay Area biotech an­nounced this morn­ing.

In its proof-of-con­cept CEDAR tri­al, the biotech plans to en­roll 15 pa­tients and share ear­ly da­ta mid-2023.

Graphite joins late on the hunt for a long-term treat­ment and po­ten­tial cure for sick­le cell dis­ease. Ver­tex Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals and CRISPR Ther­a­peu­tics could file for ap­proval for their ther­a­py, dubbed exa-cel, lat­er this year, and blue­bird bio said it plans to file a BLA in the first quar­ter of next year, though its pro­gram is un­der par­tial clin­i­cal hold for pe­di­atric pa­tients. Last month, Ed­i­tas al­so dosed its first pa­tient fol­low­ing a clin­i­cal hold.

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