Breathing Easier with a Breakthrough Immunotherapy

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis is a potentially life-threatening disease of the upper and lower respiratory tract caused by chronic infection with human papillomavirus type 6 or type 11. In the absence of approved therapies, people with the condition often undergo repeated surgeries to clear their airways. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August approved Precigen’s Papzimeos, an immunotherapy that targets the underlying cause of the RRP, as the first approved therapy to treat the condition. We spoke to Kim McClellan, president of the Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis Foundation and Simon Best, associate professor of otolaryngology-head and new surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine, about recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, the daily impact the condition can have on the lives of people with the disease, and what the approval of this therapy means for people living with the condition.