An approved gene therapy restores vision in children born with a rare form of blindness. There are other gene therapies advancing through clinical trials that could one day treat — and potentially cure — people suffering from devastating diseases like sickle cell, hemophilia, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, among others.
Overactive bladder is bothersome, but it is most definitely not a devastating disease. Yet Tuesday, the biotech firm Urovant Sciences announced plans to pursue clinical development of a gene therapy to treat people who have this troubling but by no means life-threatening condition.
Innovative drug development can come in many forms, but a gene therapy for overactive bladder strikes me as a wasteful and unnecessary scientific pursuit. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
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