The Biomedical Revolution Needs a Few Economists: Tyler Cowen

This is a golden age for biomedicine. Over the past few years, mRNA vaccines have saved millions of lives and enabled business and social life to resume at much safer levels. There are pending vaccines for malaria and for dengue, both showing good signs of working. There is serious talk of using Crispr to fix sickle cell anemia. An mRNA vaccine against some forms of cancer is more speculative, but seems possible.

Other drugs, some repurposed from anti-diabetes medicine, show very promising results in reducing obesity. Already they are being used by millions of Americans, and some reports ...