An experimental gene editing therapy for an inherited form of blindness has become the first in vivo CRISPR medicine to be administered to patients, according to Editas Medicine Inc. and its partner, Allergan plc, which licensed the candidate in 2018.

BEIJING – Chinese scientist He Jiankui has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined ¥3 million (US$429,421) for illegally carrying out the human embryo gene editing that led to the birth of twin girls and another baby with heritable changes to their genomes.  

For biopharma, 2019 can be described as a terrific year – with a few asterisks. The financial markets were flourishing, with venture capital dollars, in particular, flowing to the sector, while dealmaking reached historic proportions. Meanwhile, scientific breakthroughs led the way as cell and gene therapies gained ground, the first signs of success emerged with new technologies like CRISPR and the long-awaited promise of genomics found its way to the front lines of health care.

ORLANDO, Fla. – “The Wright brothers showed that you could fly a plane, but it wasn’t very far and it wasn’t very safe,” Wendell Lim told his audience at the 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting this weekend. “That’s where cell therapy is now.”

There are a lot of ways to save money without going bankrupt in the process, but health care in the U.S. certainly has not lent itself to that sort of thing. Still, there’s a big opportunity to do just that if one demonstrates an interest in sleep, a subject about which there is little evident interest in Washington, D.C., or in the boardrooms of med tech firms. According to a study by the Rand Corporation, data from five OECD nations suggest that those who sleep...