Living with LCA: ‘Then All Our Dreams Were Realized’
Hannah Reif, 7, will be treated with LUXTURNA™ at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to cure her blindness caused by LCA-RPE65. Pictured: Smiling Hannah holding a cake that says Happy FDA Approval Day in red frosting.
Amy Reif still can’t hold back tears when she recounts first hearing that a ground-breaking genetic-therapy treatment targeting her daughter’s LCA-RPE65 gene officially received approval.
Amy knew in October that the Food and Drug Administration was holding a meeting about LUXTURNA™, a gene therapy developed by Spark Therapeutics, and felt hopeful for a cure for her 7-year-old, Hannah’s vision loss.
“We didn’t actually realize there was a vote on it at the end, and it received unanimous support,” she recalled. She wondered, “Is this it?”
Pictured: Hannah, center, with her mom Amy, dad Christopher and brothers Jacob and Matthew, standing in front of a giant bald eagle statue.
In October the FDA’s Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Committee heard testimony, including that of Laura Manfre, co-founder and board chair of Sofia Sees Hope.
The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of the breakthrough drug.
“Then we realized it was a good next step in the process,” Amy said. “Then when the FDA approval actually happened in December – I can’t even talk about it without crying – we just had so much hope for seven years and all of a sudden all of our dreams were realized,” she said through her tears. “And it was just incredible.”
Amy, a 41-year-old mother of three living in Maple Glen, PA, with her husband, Christopher, still marvels at the idea that the genetic research focused on the same gene mutation as her daughter’s.
“What were the chances that was going to be her gene? It was just amazing.”
Pictured: Hannah and her dad Christopher.
The first-grader will be treated with LUXTURNA™ at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where Jean Bennett, M.D., Ph.D., and Albert M. Maguire, M.D., researched and conducted studies, working with mice and dogs, resulting in this extraordinary gene therapy. LUXTURNA™ is the first genetic therapy treatment for LCA-RPE65, and it is the first treatment in the United States for any inherited disease.
Hannah and her family are serendipitously located 45 minutes from CHOP. Hannah has been seen by Dr. Maguire, the principal investigator for the clinical trials that led to the approval of LUXTURNA™ .
“We didn’t have to search far and wide,” Amy said.
Treatment likely this summer
The family met Feb. 12 with Bart P. Leroy, M.D., Ph.D., for their first appointment at CHOP to get ready for surgery, which probably will happen this summer. Dr. Leroy is director of Ophthalmic Genetics and Retinal Degenerations clinics in the Division of Ophthalmology and Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics.
They discussed the surgery and took more photographs of Hannah’s eyes. They’re waiting to be scheduled for their next appointment.
Doctors told Amy that Hannah has one of the milder forms of LCA. She has night blindness that extends to any dimly-lit area any time of the day. She also has poor peripheral vision.
An ophthalmologist who saw Hannah at 2 months old suggested LCA as the possible cause of her visual impairment and sent her to CHOP for an electroretinogram (ERG).
At age 3 at CHOP, Hannah attempted to do simple tasks as part of getting into clinical trials, but she was too young, and the testing was difficult and upsetting. Two years later when they went back for their next ophthalmology appointment at CHOP, the trials were winding down.
“Had we had the opportunity to be in the trial, we would have, but it just didn’t work out.”
Over the last seven years, the family has raised more than $20,000 for Foundation Fighting Blindness through VisionWalk.
Spark’s patient assistance program
Pictured: Hannah and her mom Amy.
For help with the insurance process for Hannah’s surgery, Amy called Spark Therapeutics in January on the recommendation of other moms of children with LCA-RPE65. She said Spark is working with her insurance company on the $850,000 cost to treat both of Hannah’s eyes. The company has established Spark Therapeutics Generation Patient Services™ to support commercially insured patients and caregivers through the treatment experience and help them navigate insurance issues.
Amid all this preparation, Amy said she doesn’t know that Hannah has fully grasped what is going to happen.
“She knows that she’s going to see better, but I’m not sure at age 7 if she knows what that means. She knows that she can’t see stars and rainbows like other people can. At this point, we haven’t talked a lot about it because summer is several months away.
“She is very scared.”
Amy said her daughter had surgery for a lazy eye and still remembers having a hard time coming out of anesthesia and her eyes being crusty.
“She’s excited about the surgery, but she’s afraid she’s going to have crusty eyes. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to us, but for her it is.”
For now, though, Hannah’s enjoying life like any other kid. She attends regular first-grade classes and loves to play with her friends and with Barbies. She especially loves riding her scooter.
“The principal will be outside to meet the kids in the morning and he just sees her flying down the sidewalk on her scooter, and they know my child is visually impaired and they just can’t believe it.”
Pictured: Hannah in red jacket with pink helmet riding her pink scooter.