FDA officials are proceeding with caution as the gene editing field advances. In another recent example, the agency had issued a partial clinical hold to Editas Medicine before this July allowing that company to proceed with testing of a sickle disease treatment.
Beam is developing therapies that use base editing, a newer gene editing technology, to modify genes more precisely than the first generation of CRISPR. Instead of cutting both strands of DNA, Beam’s experimental treatments change single “letters,” an approach that may carry fewer risks.
