Pfizer pauses trial for experimental gene therapy drug after child participant ... trends now
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Pfizer has paused its trial of a drug for a rare muscle-wasting disease after a child died suddenly.
The boy, who was between two and four years old, suffered cardiac arrest after receiving the one-off gene therapy last year.
Pfizer has not determined exactly what happened or whether the death was caused by the treatment, called fordadistrogene movaparvovec.
The New York pharma giant said the pause would allow it to investigate the death 'while protecting the safety of the participants, which is our top priority.'
Pfizer has paused its trial of a drug for a rare muscle-wasting disease after a child died suddenly (stock)
The victim was part of a mid-stage study that enrolled children between the ages of two and four with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
The rare disease primarily affects boys - about one in 3,500 male births - and patients usually don't live over the age of 25.
There were three serious adverse events during the study, but all of the children recovered within two weeks.
