People Power Party lawmaker Choi Su-jin introduced a bill to establish the National Gene and Cell Therapy Center to support research and clinical trials on gene therapy and to train professionals related to gene therapy.
Choi said on the 12th that she introduced a bill to amend the Act on Safety and Support for Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Advanced Biopharmaceuticals to build the National Gene and Cell Therapy Center.
More than 300 million people worldwide suffer from gene-related diseases. In Korea, an estimated 2,400 or so rare diseases are designated and managed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the number of registered patients is estimated at about 500,000.
Representatively, in the case of leukemia, a blood cancer, the number of new patients per year in Korea reaches about 4,000, and the most common type of pediatric cancer is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), accounting for about 30% of all pediatric cancers.
The development of gene therapies and cell therapies is a core field of next-generation biohealth and is essential for patient treatment and securing national competitiveness, but there is still no legal basis for building a national gene and cell therapy center.
Through this amendment bill, Choi would establish the National Gene and Cell Therapy Center and have it support advanced regenerative medicine institutions that back clinical trials of gene therapy and gene therapies, as well as the manufacturing and quality control of gene therapies. Choi Su-jin said, "It is urgent to build the National Gene and Cell Therapy Center to increase the possibility of treating intractable diseases and to foster the gene therapy industry, a future high value-added industry."
Recently, through the National Assembly public petition board, a petition was posted requesting related legal revisions and budget support necessary for developing gene and cell therapies to treat children with rare diseases, and it obtained the consent of 50,000 people, meeting the National Assembly's screening requirement.