No­var­tis re­ports two pa­tient deaths af­ter treat­ment with Zol­gens­ma

Two chil­dren with spinal mus­cu­lar at­ro­phy have died af­ter re­ceiv­ing No­var­tis’ Zol­gens­ma, a gene ther­a­py de­signed as a one-time treat­ment for the rare fa­tal dis­ease.

The deaths, which re­sult­ed from acute liv­er fail­ure, oc­curred in Rus­sia and Kaza­khstan, No­var­tis con­firmed in a state­ment to End­points News. Hav­ing no­ti­fied health au­thor­i­ties across all the mar­kets where Zol­gens­ma is avail­able, it will up­date the drug la­bel “to spec­i­fy that fa­tal acute liv­er fail­ure has been re­port­ed,” a spokesper­son wrote.

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.