A study from Encoded Therapeutics reported that a gene-therapy safety strategy used to mitigate immune responses—steroids and sirolimus—may reduce the effectiveness of the delivered therapy. The analysis comes from Encoded’s Dravet syndrome program, where dosing regimens were designed to control immune risks associated with engineered viral vectors. The findings add nuance to the gene therapy risk-benefit equation: reducing immune attack may improve tolerability, but immune suppression could also interfere with therapeutic expression or downstream biology. Encoded’s report emphasizes the need for regimen optimization as companies move from early safety signals toward repeatable efficacy. For the field, the message is clear—protocols for immunomodulation are becoming a scientific variable, not only a safety checkbox, during late-stage program design.