U.K. regulators this week approved the first CRISPR therapy to treat humans and U.S. regulators could approve the therapy — designed to treat blood disorders — as early as December. Meanwhile, the U.S. company behind another CRISPR technology, "base editing," reported a successful initial study — despite 2 of 10 subjects experiencing heart attacks, resulting in one trial participant's death.

U.K. regulators on Thursday approved a therapy that uses CRISPR gene editing technology to treat two blood disorders. U.S. federal regulators are poised to approve that same treatment in December.

The exa-cel therapy, which goes by the brand name Casgevy, is the world's first CRISPR therapy for humans to be approved for the market.