Who’s leading the DMD gene therapy race?

Friday’s big news in Duchenne muscular dystrophy led to a widespread conclusion: Pfizer’s gene therapy seems fine, but Sarepta Therapeutics has a better one. Now that we’re a few days removed from it all, are we sure it’s that simple?

STAT’s Matthew Herper and Adam Feuerstein had something of a salon on the topic, digging into the debate over Pfizer and Sarepta. On the one hand, Sarepta’s therapy looks optically better than Pfizer’s, but on the other, this whole debate is based on data from 10 cumulative patients.

The important answers lay ahead. Pfizer needs to figure out how to address some emerging side effects, while Sarepta needs to replicate the promising signal it saw in an earlier trial. And, perhaps most pressing, the world needs to learn more about how to measure the benefits of a one-time treatment for DMD.

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