The information: There’s a 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 accepted 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, shortly 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 children a yr within the US. The acute rarity of such illnesses is what’s behind the hovering price-tags of latest gene therapies, and why promoting the most recent DNA therapy may very well be a shaky enterprise. Learn the complete 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 doubtless spot an electrical bike zipping by. They’ve change into more and more standard in recent times, particularly amongst supply drivers. However the e-bike inflow has precipitated a wave of fires sparked by their batteries, a few of them lethal.

Now, the town desires to battle 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 autos within the metropolis, one which’s handy and will cut back the danger of fires. However the street to fireside security will doubtless be lengthy and winding given the sheer variety of batteries we’re integrating into our every day lives, in e-bikes and past. Learn the complete story.