The information: There’s a new costliest drug ever—a gene remedy that prices as a lot as a Brooklyn brownstone or a Miami mansion, and greater than the typical particular person will earn in a lifetime. Lenmeldy is a gene therapy for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and was authorized within the US on Monday. Its maker, Orchard Therapeutics, says the $4.25 million wholesale value displays the worth the therapy has for sufferers and households.
Why it issues: MLD is a nerve dysfunction that strikes toddlers, rapidly robbing them of their potential to talk and stroll. Round half die, the others dwell on in a vegetative state. However it’s extremely uncommon, affecting solely round 40 youngsters a yr within the US. The intense rarity of such illnesses is what’s behind the hovering price-tags of recent gene therapies, and why promoting the most recent DNA therapy could possibly be a shaky enterprise. Learn the total story.
—Antonio Regalado
New York Metropolis’s plan to cease e-bike battery fires
Stroll just some blocks in New York Metropolis and also you’ll seemingly spot an electrical bike zipping by. They’ve develop into more and more well-liked in recent times, particularly amongst supply drivers. However the e-bike inflow has prompted a wave of fires sparked by their batteries, a few of them lethal.
Now, town needs to battle these fires with battery swapping. A pilot program will present a small variety of supply drivers with various choices to energy up their e-bikes, together with swapping stations that offer absolutely charged batteries on demand.
Proponents say this system may lay the groundwork for a brand new mode of powering small electrical automobiles within the metropolis, one which’s handy and will scale back the chance of fires. However the street to fireside security will seemingly be lengthy and winding given the sheer variety of batteries we’re integrating into our each day lives, in e-bikes and past. Learn the total story.
