2016年接近尾聲，是時候梳理過去一年生命科學和醫療領域的大事了。藥品定價方面的爭議和大規模調查非法勾結攪得大型藥企震動頻頻。保險公司和醫院還在努力面對唐納德·特朗普上臺的事實，研究新政府對病人和行醫底線的影響。哦對了，還有一些專門科研成果即將進入市場，包括CRISPR基因編輯技術首次應用于人類臨床試驗。

雖然醫藥領域受政治動蕩，還有不少看似合理的丑聞影響，但未來數年甚至數十年里還得靠生物醫藥領域的革新引領醫藥行業前進，延長人類壽命。政府也得與時俱進，接受科學家已經可以修改基因并重新整合基礎生物學的現實。

上周四英國政府就做了榜樣，正式批準婦產醫院測試有三方父父母的嬰兒。但規定此法只能在極端情況下使用，主要為了治療線粒體紊亂。

“今天這一歷史性的決定意味著，如果嬰兒可能罹患致命的線粒體相關疾病，父母可以選擇該療法孕育健康且有血緣的后代，”英國人類受精與胚胎管理局主席薩利·切希爾在一份聲明中表示。“對面臨疾病風險的家庭來說，這項規定會完全改變他們的生活。”

這項技術并非新事，也不是英國突然決定接受。過去兩年該項技術逐漸成型，英國政府的批準只是監管流程的最后一步。

當然，這項舉動也引發了爭議。生化學家和一些請愿團一直在警告，該技術可能導致滑坡謬誤，對后代產生難以預計的后果。而且可能使未來像電影《變種異煞》中一樣變成“設計嬰兒”的世界。美國甚至有議員認為應該頒布法令禁止研究“為了加入某項可遺傳的基因特性而人為制造或修改人類胚胎”。但現實是，不管我們是否準備好，未來已在眼前。（財富中文網）

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譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

As 2016 draws to a close, there’s plenty to look back on in the world of the life sciences and health care. Controversies over drug pricing and wide-scale investigations into illegal collusion rocked the world of big pharma; insurers and hospitals are grappling with the reality of a Donald Trump administration, and what it might mean for their patients and bottom lines; and, oh, there was also some pretty special science inching closer to the marketplace, including the advent of the first CRISPR gene-editing clinical trials in humans.

For all the political anxieties and legitimate scandals to hit the sector, it’s that kind of biopharma innovation that will continue to change the face of medical care and human life itself in the years and decades to come. And governments will have to catch up with a brave new world wherein we can modify genes and re-engineer basic biology.

The U.K. took just such a step on Thursday, officially sanctioning fertility clinics to become licensed practitioners of creating three-parent babies. The method can only be used in very specific circumstances in order to fight devastating mitochondrial disorders.

“Today’s historic decision means that parents at very high risk of having a child with a life-threatening mitochondrial disease may soon have the chance of a healthy, genetically related child,” said Sally Cheshire, chair of the U.K.’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), in a statement. “This is life-changing for those families.

The technique isn’t new, and neither is the U.K.’s decision to embrace it. Rather, it’s the final step in a regulatory process that has been taking shape over the last two years.

And this is, of course, controversial. Bioethicists and certain advocacy groups have warned that such technology can lead to a slippery slope with unknown consequences for future generations, and give rise to a Gattaca-like world of “designer babies.” U.S. lawmakers even felt compelled to establish legislation barring research “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.” But what’s clear is this: the future is here, whether we’re ready for it or not.