Fourth patient to be given innovative treatment for CJD

On Monday (28/01/2019) the Court of Protection ruled that it was lawful and in the patient’s best interests to receive the unlicensed antibody called PRN100.

University College London Hospitals (UCLH) made the application and this was fully supported by the patient’s family.

CJD is a rare but devastating disease that causes brain damage and for which there is currently no treatment.

In 2018, UCLH began treating three patients with the PRN100 drug. The third patient to receive the antibody treatment, who had a very aggressive form of the disease, has sadly died as a result of their condition.

The first and second patients to receive the drug have not experienced any side effects to date.

UCLH’s chief executive Professor Marcel Levi said: “On behalf of UCLH, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the patient’s family and loved ones. They are in our thoughts at this difficult time.”

Professor John Collinge, Director of the MRC Prion Unit at UCL, said: “All of these patients were at different stages of their disease when they began to receive the antibody. It is too early to determine if, or to what extent, the treatment has had an impact on their condition.”

Links

• Professor John Collinge
• MRC Prion Unit at UCL 
• Prion diseases and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease FAQs
• UCLH 
• Medical Research Council 

Image 

Credit: MRC Prion Unit at UCL

Media contact

Henry Killworth 

Tel: +44 207 679 5296

E: h.killworth [at] ucl.ac.uk