The FDA Must Decide Whether Crispr’s Gene-Editing Promise Is Worth the Risk
The technique won a Nobel Prize. Now regulators must say if it’s safe for new sickle cell treatments to modify patients’ genetic code.
Over the ages, scientists have devised medicines to successfully treat thousands of illnesses, but eliminating rare and deadly maladies altogether is a holy grail. Treatments for inherited conditions like sickle cell disease have offered mere stopgaps that still leave patients to live sickly, pain-filled lives. The gene-editing technology Crispr, whose researchers were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry, could change that. It’s been heralded for its potential not only to treat such diseases, but to cure them by changing a person’s genetic code.
Now, for the first time, a therapy that harnesses Crispr’s power is poised to make its way to market. That is, if it can clear one last hurdle: regulators.