Gene therapy helps counter hemophilia B

Enabling cells to make a clotting compound allows some patients to quit medication

A gene therapy based on a cargo-toting virus that gravitates to liver cells might provide hemophilia B patients with long-lasting protection against bleeding, an international team of scientists reports online December 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Hemophilia B is the second-most common form of hemophilia, a hereditary disorder in which blood fails to clot properly.