(Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.’s experimental gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy helped boys with the deadly disease, but failed to match benefits previously shown by competitor Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.All nine of the boys, ages 6 to 12, in the early-stage trial started to produce a key protein called dystrophin after receiving the one-time treatment. While patients with DMD don’t normally make any of the protein needed for muscles to work properly, three boys on a higher dose of the gene therapy produced about 52% of normal levels a year after treatment, Pfizer said in a statement.One boy on the higher dose needed platelet transfusion and treatment with Alexion Inc.’s Soliris to boost the number of platelets in his blood after his immune system reacted to the gene therapy. While he fully recovered, the reaction marks the third serious adverse event tied to the treatment after two other patients were hospitalized shortly...
Stocks fell Friday morning after a whipsaw session on Thursday, as investors continued to weigh new economic data and earnings results against hopes of a speedy economic reopening....
In a race to position itself in the latest trade battle between the United States and China, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd made it just under the wire. The world's biggest contract chipmaker unveiled plans for a $12 billion plant in Arizona on Friday just hours before Washington outlined a proposal to amend tech export rules that could restrict TSMC's sales to China's Huawei. A U.S. Commerce Department official said TSMC's decision to locate the plant in the United States generated "good will" at the department, the drafter of the law that would require TSMC and others to get U.S. licences to sell chips to Huawei....
