| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Event | First global administration of ITVISMA gene therapy for SMA |
| Date | December 28, 2025 |
| Location | Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi |
| Regulatory Approval | Granted by the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi on November 25, 2025 |
| Therapy Developer | Novartis |
| Targeted Disease | Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) |
| Key Feature | One-time single-dose gene therapy that replaces the defective SMN1 gene and enables SMN protein production. |
| Eligibility | Patients aged 2 years and above, including adults |
| Cost | Expected to be comparable to Zolgensma (~$2 million per dose) |
| Global Significance | UAE becomes the second country after the United States to approve ITVISMA for clinical use. |
| Medical Milestone | Historic leap in precision medicine and genomics-based healthcare. |
| Key Figure | Dr. Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi |
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