A Scientific Triumph.

Weekend News Items.

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1. The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the world’s first medicine based on CRISPR gene-editing technology, a groundbreaking treatment for sickle cell disease that delivers a potential cure for people born with the chronic and life-shortening blood disorder. The new medicine, called Casgevy, is made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics. Its authorization is a scientific triumph for the technology that can efficiently and precisely repair DNA mutations — ushering in a new era of genetic medicines for inherited diseases. (Source: statnews.com)

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2. China’s consumer prices fell 0.5 per cent year on year in November, the sharpest decline in three years as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with worsening deflation. Consumer prices dropped by more than the 0.2 per cent decline forecast by a Bloomberg survey of economists and exceeded October’s fall of 0.2 per cent. Producer prices, which are measured at factory gates and heavily driven by the cost of commodities and raw materials, dropped by 3 per cent and have remained in negative territory for the past year. Consumer prices entered deflationary territory in July and briefly rose in August before falling again in October. The deflationary trend adds to an array of economic pressures facing the country’s policymakers, including a liquidity crunch in the property sector, weak trade data and a slowing recovery from three years of zero-Covid lockdowns and border closures. (Source: ft.com)

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