Hospital Suspends Gene Therapy Tests
From Times Wire Reports
A Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston quietly suspended a gene therapy experiment last summer after three of the first six patients died and a seventh fell seriously ill, previously unreleased research records show. Richard Junghans, the Harvard Medical School researcher who led the study, blamed the problems on a series of tragic coincidences that were mostly not related to the treatment. Junghans’ reports were among hundreds of tardily submitted “adverse event” reports that the National Institutes of Health has received in response to news articles and stern agency directives last fall reminding gene researchers of their legal obligation.
