Will Chou – VJRegenMed

Optimizing patient access and development costs of gene therapies

Simon Ng — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 15:46:09 +0000

Will Chou, MD, Aruvant, New York, NY, discusses strategies to lower production costs and increase patient access to novel gene therapies. Manufacturing therapies is the biggest factor in determining cost and investing in new technologies as well as increased demand will incentivize innovation and streamline the production process. Increased research on experimental therapies have increased patient access to them and developing unique features that will provide value to the product will additionally help patients to obtain novel therapies. This interview took place at Advanced Therapies Week 2022.

Increasing patient recruitment to rare disease trials

Simon Ng — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 17:40:21 +0000

Will Chou, MD, Aruvant, New York, NY, provides his insights on approaches to solve recruitment issues in clinical trials for rare diseases such as sickle cell disease (SCD). He emphasizes the need to gain the trust of patients, who may not necessarily be knowledgeable of every aspect of the therapy, as well as being transparent with everyone involved in the trials. This interview took place at Advanced Therapies Week 2022.

MOMENTUM: ARU-1801 in sickle cell disease

Simon Ng — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 17:06:07 +0000

Will Chou, MD, Aruvant, New York, NY, presents preliminary results from the Phase I/II MOMENTUM study (NCT02186418) of ARU-1801, a lentiviral gene therapy, in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). 5 patients are currently enrolled and the investigational therapy has a promising efficacy and safety profile, with no vaso-occlusive episodes (VOE) or hospital stays reported in patients. Dr Chou additionally reports a durable response in patients, with therapeutic hemoglobin detected in patients 3 years after initial administration. This interview took place at Advanced Therapies Week 2022.

ARU-1801, a novel lentiviral gene therapy for SCD

Simon Ng — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 12:25:15 +0000

Current investigational therapies for sickle cell disease (SCD) require conditioning chemotherapy such as busulfan to administer the genetically-modified stem cells in the patient’s bone marrow. Will Chou, MD, Aruvant, New York, NY, provides an overview of ARU-1801, for patients with SCD. The lentiviral gene therapy uses fewer doses of an alternative chemotherapy, melphalan, which results in fewer side effects such as thrombocytopenia and veno-occlusive liver disease, as well as shorter hospital stays. This interview took place at Advanced Therapies Week 2022.

Addressing issues in conducting clinical trials for rare diseases

Simon Ng — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 12:25:09 +0000

Will Chou, MD, Aruvant, New York, NY, gives an overview of challenges associated with conducting clinical trials for rare and orphan diseases such as sickle cell disease (SCD) and hypophosphatasia. Due the nature of these diseases, finding an adequate number of patients can be a barrier and Dr Chou additionally highlights the need to collaborate with patients groups to educate and build rapport with them for successful clinical trial recruitment. This interview took place at Advanced Therapies Week 2022.