CHINA Genetics Group and Luohu Hospital Group are planning to build the world’s first gene and cell therapy hospital in Shenzhen, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Friday.

The hospital, after it is built and put into use, is expected to provide treatment for rare diseases, such as cerebral palsy and GM2 gangliosides, as well as some difficult-to-cure diseases like Alzheimer’s and leukemia.

According to the planning, the hospital will receive an investment of about 2 billion yuan (US$291 million) from China Genetics Group. The hospital will be located in Xialilang in Buji Subdistrict, Longgang District.

Additionally, the hospital will have 1,100 wards housing 2,500 beds. It will also include a cell therapy center offering gene therapy and gene modification and repair, a platform for medical treatment and recuperation, and a platform for remote treatment.

The Li Weibo Charitable Foundation, a nonpublic charity group, said it will raise funds to reduce the burden on patients and their families.

Gao Guangping, chairman-elect of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy and a professor at the University of Massachusetts, said there are about 20 million patients suffering from rare diseases in China, about 95 percent of which are caused by single-gene defects. Gene and cell therapy are considered the most effective treatments for these diseases at present.

(Zhang Yu)