Briefing | Genetic therapy

Gene therapies must become miracles of medicine

Otherwise they might end up a niche treatment for a small number of patients in rich countries

In 2018, when he was 13, Ethan Ralston’s eyesight started to get blurry. The diagnosis was devastating. He had been born with Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (lhon), a rare genetic disorder that eats away at the cells of the optic nerve until it causes blindness.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “The trials of gene therapy”

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