Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Online > Online Single Topic Coverage by a Team > Mid Atlantic

Title of entry: 
The world’s first CRISPR medicine

Issue or Publication date:
10/11/23, 10/31/23, 11/8/23, 12/8/23, 12/10/23

Publication name: 
BioPharma Dive

Publishing/parent company: 
Industry Dive

View Website home page:
https://biopharmadive.com/

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

Edit genes to cure disease. That’s the promise held out by CRISPR, a revolutionary tool described by Nobel Prize-winning researchers a decade ago. This year, the first medicine built with CRISPR won U.S. and U.K. approval, delivering on the technology’s science-shaking potential in an extraordinarily quick timespan.

But what does a cure mean to someone with an inherited disease? And what if treatment isn’t such an easy choice? Anticipating the approvals, BioPharma Dive Lead Editor Ned Pagliarulo sought to answer those questions with a deeply reported feature on sickle cell disease, the blood condition treated by the drug.

The story was part of coverage that delivered on BioPharma Dive’s mission to provide in-depth reporting on the most consequential storylines within the drug development business. Pagliarulo developed the coverage with Reporter Gwendolyn Wu, Senior Reporter Jonathan Gardner, Visuals Editor Shaun Lucas and News Graphics Developer Julia Himmel.

Knowing regulators were likely to decide on the drug’s approval at the end of 2023, Pagliarulo and Wu spent months interviewing scientists, physicians and executives involved in translating CRISPR from laboratory science to human medicine.

Wu dove deep into the web of biotechnology companies working on CRISPR, documenting the spread of startups using the tool to treat genetic diseases. Her story was published ahead of a key regulatory meeting that Wu, Pagliarulo and Gardner covered with live play-by-play reporting.

Pagliarulo prepared for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision by readying a story ahead of time so BioPharma Dive could move quickly with a breaking news alert.

Pagliarulo then followed the sickle cell drug’s approval with an oral history of its development, drawing from interviews with nearly two dozen people closely involved in its creation.

Together, the five stories paint a picture of the tremendous gains scientists and drugmakers have made, while illustrating the tough questions curative treatments can still bring for patients.

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
Please enter a URL that will direct judges to the entry: 
https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/crispr-biotech-gene-editing-broad-berkeley-history/695401/
Additional URLs, if needed:
https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/vertex-crispr-exa-cel-fda-advisory-committee-live-coverage-tracking/698214/
https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/sickle-cell-crispr-gene-editing-vertex-exa-cel-barriers/698121/
https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/crispr-fda-approval-sickle-cell-gene-editing-vertex-casgevy/701522/
https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/crispr-casgevy-oral-history-vertex-sickle-cell-disease/701075/