Story highlights Luxturna is the first gene therapy treatment for an inherited genetic mutation

The treatment is set to be available in the first part of 2018

(CNN) The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a gene therapy treatment for patients with a rare inherited eye disease.

Voretigene neparvovec, which will be sold as Luxturna, is made by Philadelphia-based Spark Therapeutics Inc.

The one-time treatment is approved for children and adults with retinal dystrophy due to a mutation of the RPE65 gene, which causes severe visual impairment beginning in infancy. As it progresses, patients experience gradual loss of peripheral and central vision, which can eventually lead to blindness.

There are more than 200 genes that can cause retinal dystrophy. Patients can be tested to determine whether the cause is indeed a mutation of the RPE65 gene and they are thus a potential candidate for this new treatment.

Luxturna is only the third gene therapy approved for use in the United States, preceded by two others this year. However, this is the first to correct an inherited genetic mutation. Some scientists believe that the approval could open the door to other treatments that correct flaws in the inherited genome.

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