The information: There is a brand new most costly drug ever—a gene remedy that prices as a lot as a Brooklyn brownstone or a Miami mansion, and greater than the common individual will earn in a lifetime. Lenmeldy is a gene therapy for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and was authorised 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. Around half die, the others reside on in a vegetative state. But it’s extremely uncommon, affecting solely round 40 youngsters a 12 months within the US. The excessive rarity of such illnesses is what’s behind the hovering price-tags of latest gene therapies, and why promoting the most recent DNA therapy might be a shaky enterprise. Read the complete story.
—Antonio Regalado
New York City’s plan to cease e-bike battery fires
Walk just some blocks in New York City and also you’ll probably spot an electrical bike zipping by. They have turn out to be more and more standard lately, particularly amongst supply drivers. But the e-bike inflow has prompted a wave of fires sparked by their batteries, a few of them lethal.
Now, the town desires to struggle these fires with battery swapping. A pilot program will present a small variety of supply drivers with different choices to energy up their e-bikes, together with swapping stations that provide totally charged batteries on demand.
Proponents say this system might 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. But the highway to fireside security will probably be lengthy and winding given the sheer variety of batteries we’re integrating into our each day lives, in e-bikes and past. Read the complete story.