Gene therapy and Peter White with Jimmy Savile on Jim'll Fix it

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Peter White talks to Professor Robert MacLaren about his recent success treating the eye condition choroideremia using gene therapy and says he thinks it could be used to treat other more prevalent conditions such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Macular Degeneration, in the future. Dr Tim Cave, from Novartis explains the current position regarding the talks Novartis are having with the Dept of Health, with the aim of making the drug more widely available to people needing treatment. He also stated that Avastin and Lucentis are two different drugs and only Lucentis is licensed for use in the eye. When asked about the huge differential in cost of the two drugs, Dr Cave said that Lucentis was the price it is due to years of research and development, which is costly and suggested that were Avastin to become licensed, the cost of it would doubtless rise. Grace Elson relives her letter to Jim'll Fix It, when she wrote in wanting to know what it was like to be blind.