The World Ahead | Medicine in 2024
New medical treatments will use genetic scissors, and other clever tricks
From sickle-cell disease to glaucoma, these are the drugs to look out for
![Repeating head silhouettes that reveal more and more cells, DNAs, molecules](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20231118_TWSTD003.jpg)
By Natasha Loder
New medicines to treat sickle-cell disease and beta thalassaemia, two genetic blood disorders, will make headlines in 2024. Most notable of these is the first CRISPR-gene-edited drug, which made its historic arrival in late 2023. Gene editing uses molecular scissors to edit DNA. It is a more precise form of modification than gene therapy, an older technology that uses a viral vector to inject a working gene into a cell. Gene editing has moved astonishingly quickly through drug pipelines—much faster than gene therapies, which have been slow and difficult to develop.
This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “Medical marvels”