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Is Concert Pharmaceuticals’ approach to drug development an artful way around patent law, or a safer route to build a drug? Maybe both.

The Massachusetts company is developing close facsimiles to the cystic fibrosis drug Kalydeco and the cancer drug Jakafi. They’re not quite biosimilars, nor are they generics — they’re therapies that are just different enough structurally from the established drugs to be considered unique pharmaceuticals.

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How does Concert do it? It essentially swaps out the hydrogen in the drugs’ molecular structure for deuterium, which is basically a heavy version of hydrogen.

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