Vertex pauses diabetes islet cell therapy study after two patient deaths it says are unrelated to drug

Ver­tex has paused the Phase I/II study of its islet cell ther­a­py for type 1 di­a­betes fol­low­ing the death of two pa­tients, though the com­pa­ny said the deaths were un­re­lat­ed to the ex­per­i­men­tal ther­a­py.

Known as VX-880, the treat­ment is Ver­tex’s at­tempt at po­ten­tial­ly cre­at­ing a cure for type 1 di­a­betes, or at least a much more durable treat­ment than fre­quent in­sulin in­jec­tions. The study will re­main on pause as glob­al reg­u­la­tors and an in­de­pen­dent da­ta mon­i­tor­ing com­mit­tee re­view the “to­tal­i­ty of the da­ta.”

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