November was affirming for Dr. Kenneth Ataga, physician-researcher at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and director of its Center for Sickle Cell Disease. Ataga is from Nigeria, where an estimated 1 million people, including 250,000 newborns every year, have sickle cell. In the space of 10 days last month, the FDA approved two… Read More
Patients with sickle cell disease will soon have a new treatment option to reduce pain crises caused by obstructed blood flow. The FDA has approved use of the drug crizanlizumab based on the results of a clinical trial led by Kenneth Ataga, MD, Plough Foundation Endowed Chair in Sickle Cell Disease and director of the… Read More
Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Adakveo® (crizanlizumab), previously known as SEG101, to reduce the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs), or pain crises, in adult and pediatric patients aged 16 years and older with sickle cell disease.4 Adakveo represents the first FDA-approved medicine in sickle cell disease that binds… Read More
Memphis has one of the highest populations of adult sickle cell patients in the United States. About 1,700 patients have the disease, according to Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.Right now, there are only a few FDA-approved treatment options for sickle cell disease, with the most recent treatment approved last year by the federal agency. Dr. Kenneth… Read More
Kenneth Ataga, MD, has been named director of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s new Center for Sickle Cell Disease in the College of Medicine. He will begin his new role July 1.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center has launched a new Center for Sickle Cell Disease in the College of Medicine and tapped a leader for it who will come on board in July.
