HOUSTON — People living with sickle cell disease and their families are excited about what the FDA recently did to help.
It approved gene therapies for those dealing with the disease.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic condition that affects 100,000 Americans, primarily those with African ancestry.
Now, there's a ray of hope -- two gene therapies are available.
Pain from the disease can happen anywhere blood circulates because red blood cells, normally donut-shaped, bend into inflexible sickle shapes, causing them to pile inside blood vessels and interrupt oxygen flow. It causes bone deterioration, strokes and organ failure.
The gene-editing technology called "CRISPR" can be used to increase the amount of a protective form of hemoglobin that picks up oxygen from the lungs.
The executive director of the As One Foundation said they're trying to raise awareness and research for the sickle cell community.
"It's absolutely great news. To have two new therapies available to the sickle cell community is huge and that cannot be lost on us," Dr. Tomia Austin said.
Austin said more research needs to be done and more treatments need to be available, but doctors are calling gene therapy a game-changer.
It's all cutting-edge, and like most cutting-edge medicinal treatments, it's costly.
It could cost as much as $2 million per patient.