Bengal Baby Gets Shot At Life With Rs 17.5 Cr ‘Gene Therapy’ Jab For Rare Disorder [Video]

Kolkata: In a first for a West Bengal government-run hospital, a 20-month-old boy suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) received gene therapy costing Rs 17.5 crore. The treatment was carried out at NRS Medical College Hospital. The world’s most expensive drug Zolgensma is administered during the therapy.

SMA is categorised as a rare disorder that affects motor neurons and nerve cells that control voluntary muscles. The therapy is believed to manage the situation although the disorder remains incurable.

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Soumyajit, who received this breakthrough treatment, is the second patient in the state to undergo gene therapy for SMA. The doctors at NRS diagnosed Soumyajit with SMA when he was only six months old. The boy’s father, Ranajit Pal, a resident of a village in Howrah’s Shyampur followed the advice of the doctor and …