Intellia Therapeutics just reported positive Phase 3 clinical trial results for its experimental treatment for hereditary angioedema, a rare condition causing sudden and sometimes dangerous swelling in different parts of the body. The one-time treatment edits a gene inside the body. A single dose reduced swelling attacks by 87% and many patients had no attacks at all during the 6-month study period. Will this be a clinical success, and the first of many such therapies based on gene-editing CRISPR technology?

The positive test results of this clinical study are valid and a genuine reflection of the promise of this technology to be a game changer for specific genetic liabilities, as such the technology will be extremely valuable for those afflicted. But it will not be a broad answer for the majority of illness, which is not genetic but viral in causation, and this is still unknown to medical science despite growing clues from a number of observations pointing towards this reality.