Gene therapy research hindered by virus shortages
The expanding field of gene therapy is being hampered by a lack of disabled viruses with which to test new treatments, with some companies forced to wait years for a supply. Companies that create bespoke viruses are deluged with orders, but the process of creation is laborious, requires extensive documentation and is prone to setbacks. Smaller firms that don't have the financial clout to follow BioMarin's example and build their own facility, are having to pay millions to buy slots in delivery queues years ahead of time.

Eager to speed development of revolutionary treatments, the Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it would expedite approval of experimental gene therapies. But the regulatory process may not be the biggest obstacle here.

Biotech companies have exciting plans to introduce treatments that may be transformative, sometimes curing genetic diseases with a single treatment. And the firms are itching to test their products.

But they are struggling to obtain a critical component of the therapy: the disabled viruses used to slip good genes into cells that lack them.

This delivery system lies at the heart of many forms of gene therapy; without the disabled viruses, there is no treatment. But manufacturing them is costly and onerous.