NPR.

There are only a few ways to grow an economy.

There's population growth.

You can accumulate more capital, more machines and office blocks.

But in the long run,

you'll eventually reach limits. One of the most important ingredients for long-term growth is

better technology. And one area where innovation is happening fast right now is in medical

technology. Yeah, entire new therapies are being developed, whether it's new treatments for food allergies or CRISPR for gene editing.

Each week, it's as if we're getting news about GLP-1s like Ozmpic helping out in all kinds of areas seemingly unrelated to obesity.

Like, did you know, one study suggests it could fight breast cancer?

I only just learned this. You know, as soon as it's going to be faster to list what GLP-1s can't do.

But today we're going to spotlight three medical advances that may have flown under the radar.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Darym Woods.

And I'm Waylon Wong.

Today on the show, Medical Advances.

As the federal government cuts science funding, we take you on a tour of the economics

of health technology.

We visit the University of Florida, a Japanese multinational, and a Chinese startup.

All right, we're going to go through three recent medical innovations, and each will be

on a stage along the pipeline,

early research, recent approval, and mass deployment. First, early research.

...