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The merger announcement from Walgreens Boots Alliance and Rite Aid throws up an interesting question, writes Stephen Littlejohn. Will Walgreens be purveyor focused on retail sales or provider engaged with a transforming U.S. healthcare system?

Medicine is entering a new era of “gene editing.” Instead of simply being able to “read” our genes, practitioners will be able to adapt and modify DNA sequencing in living cells to treat, cure, and even prevent disease. Defective genes responsible for life-threatening diseases can be rendered harmless by gene editing; it can also be used to develop new, precisely targeted biological drugs based on an individual’s distinct genetic markers. The full list of possibilities, in every area of the life sciences, is simply beyond imagination.