Barriers to the adoption of innovative sickle cell therapies

Newswise — The marketing of the gene-editing tool CRISPR must consider three key aspects for the FDA’s first approval of gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease to succeed, according to University of Illinois Chicago researchers. Based on their earlier study, Lez Trujillo Torres, assistant professor of marketing, and Benét DeBerry-Spence, professor of marketing, report that Black patients have a risk deliberation that includes personal and collective aspects; institutions and medical professionals promoting and introducing innovative therapies must consider their roles in creating distrust; and marketing and reporting of CRISPR must be transparent and acknowledge the day-to-day realities patients face with racism and discrimination.