(New York Times) – Kendric Cromer, 12, is among the first patients to be treated with gene therapy just approved by the F.D.A. that many other patients face obstacles to receiving.

Last December, the Food and Drug Administration gave approval to two companies, Bluebird Bio of Somerville, Mass., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston, to sell the first gene therapies approved for sickle cell disease. After nine months, Kendric remains the first Bluebird patient to progress this far, with at least a few others advancing toward his pace.

Doctors say that it is agonizingly slow to actually start treating patients. (Read More)