Skip to main content
Gene Therapy Net RSS feed Follow Gene Therapy Net on Twitter LinkedIn - Gene Therapy Net discussion group Facebook - Gene Therapy Net
 

Zynteglo

Zynteglo is a medicine used to treat a blood disorder known as beta thalassaemia in patients 12 years and older who require regular blood transfusions. People with this genetic condition cannot make enough beta-globin, a component of haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. As a result, these patients have low red blood cell levels and need frequent blood transfusions. Zynteglo is used in patients who do not completely lack beta-globin and who are eligible for stem cell transplantation but do not have a matching related donor.

Beta thalassaemia is rare, and Zynteglo was designated an ‘orphan medicine’ (a medicine used in rare diseases) on 24 January 2013. Zynteglo contains as its active substance stem cells taken from the patients that have been genetically modified to contain a working gene for beta-globin.

Zynteglo has been developed by bluebird bio (Netherlands) B.V. It was approved on 29 May 2019 in the European Union by the EMA. Zynteglo is indicated for the treatment of patients 12 years and older with transfusion-dependent β thalassaemia (TDT) who do not have a β0/β0 genotype, for whom haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is appropriate but a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched related HSC donor is not available.