Ashlee VanceNYT Best Seller | Reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek

The Economics of Gene Editing #biology #science #tech

17 Sept 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:02

In this segment Ashlee Vance explains that editing a very early‑stage embryo (or blastoid) via a single microinjection can modify the entire organism, making the approach technologically efficient and dramatically cheaper than current somatic gene therapies. He cites the FDA‑approved sickle‑cell therapy Casgevy, which costs $2–3 million per patient, and argues that an embryonic intervention could cost as little as 1 % of that amount. Vance frames the high cost of national healthcare—doctor visits, drug pricing, etc.—as a pressing problem, and suggests that providing a safe, cost‑effective cure for debilitating heritable diseases through embryo editing would alleviate that burden.

Chapters

But with an embryo or like a very early stage blastoid, you have the potential just to change the entire embryo at once with one microinjection. So it becomes a lot more effective from a technology perspective, but also from a cost perspective. The first gene therapy that was approved by the FDA for sickle cell anemia, Casgevy, it's $2 to $3 million USD per patient per dose. And, you know, for something that you can inject into an embryo, it would be like 1% of the cost, if not less than that. And one of the biggest issues for every country right now is the national healthcare spending for, you know, healthcare for, you know, doctor consultations, drug pricing, especially in this country. And so if you're able to provide patients that have debilitating heritable diseases with a much more cost-effective and safer option, then why not do it?