The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first personalized cell therapy to treat patients with advanced multiple myeloma. It will be marketed under the brand name Abecma by its makers, Bristol Myers Squibb and Bluebird Bio.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that helps fight infections. In people with multiple myeloma, malignant plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow, where they crowd out healthy blood cells, causing tumors, kidney damage, bone destruction, and impaired immune function.
Abecma was cleared by the FDA to treat patients with multiple myeloma that is no longer responsive to four or more previous lines of therapy. The treatment will cost $419,500, Bristol and Bluebird said.
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I am a multiple myeloma survivor of 17 years. Random stem cell transplants, Thorasic surgery to remove a plasma Cytoma, radiation and numerous chemo. Decease under check at present with Kyphosis and Pomerlis, but side effects starting to pile up. Would be most greatfull for more info regard this Abecma treatment.