Friedberg’s statement in the episode is that “there’s this tidal wave coming to market soon of cell and gene therapies. They’re going to have a profound effect on a lot of disease conditions.”(podscripts.co) The prediction is explicitly about “coming years” after 2023, i.e., a multi‑year trend rather than something that should be fully visible by late 2025.

What we can observe so far:

• By the end of 2023 there were on the order of a few dozen–roughly 70+–cell and gene therapies approved globally, with a rapidly expanding pipeline (thousands of candidates in clinical development).(industryresearch.biz)
• Since the episode aired (Jan 2024), additional high‑profile cell/gene therapies have been approved, such as lifileucel (Amtagvi) for metastatic melanoma (Feb 2024), atidarsagene autotemcel (Libmeldy/Lenmeldy) in the US (Mar 2024), and revakinagene taroretcel (Encelto) for macular telangiectasia type 2 (Mar 2025), along with further expansions and new approvals in areas like spinal muscular atrophy and graft‑versus‑host disease.(en.wikipedia.org)
• The clinical pipeline is still very large and growing: recent industry and market reports describe >2,000 active cell and gene therapy clinical trials and more than 3,000 development‑stage candidates by 2023–2024, with regulators like the FDA expecting to review 10–20 such therapies per year in coming years.(biospectrumasia.com)

These facts show early movement in the predicted direction (more approvals and a huge pipeline), but they do not yet establish that a “tidal wave” of therapies has actually reached the market and is having a “profound effect on a lot of disease conditions” in aggregate. Uptake remains constrained by high costs and access/reimbursement challenges, and most of the thousands of candidates are still in trials rather than approved products.(biospectrumasia.com)

Because:

• the prediction’s horizon is explicitly multi‑year/long‑term, extending well beyond 2025, and
• the current evidence is consistent with the prediction but far from decisive either way,

it is too early to say whether the forecasted “tidal wave” and broad, profound disease impact have truly materialized. Therefore the status of this prediction as of December 1, 2025 is best classified as inconclusive (too early to tell).