The UK trial to evaluate TeGenero’s TGN1412 made the headlines earlier this year when six healthy study volunteers suffered multiple organ failure and were left fighting for their lives in intensive care after taking the drug candidate.
While the event has proven to be the end of German biotech firm TeGenero, which recently filed for bankruptcy, the trial volunteers were under the impression that their symptoms would not have an impact upon their health in the long-term. However, according to The Sunday Times, research conducted by Nottingham University immunology expert Professor Richard Powell suggests that the volunteers could actually face a lifetime of contracting cancers and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Furthermore, according to the newspaper, the process has already begun, with one of the volunteers having already developed early signs of lymphatic cancer.