Biotech, but make it beauty: Startups look to viruses and bacteria for the next generation of skin care
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — The market for acne treatments is simultaneously oversaturated and sorely lacking….
Author: STAT
CMS finalizes long-sought rules for Medicare CAR-T coverage
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration finalized late Wednesday long-sought rules for when Medicare will cover…
Novartis CEO: ‘We tried to do the right things’ in FDA data scandal
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan on Wednesday defended his company’s decision to wait three months to…
Archived: An online chat discussing how to quell vaccine hesitancy
With vaccine hesitancy on the rise, some in the medical community are trying a new…
STAT Plus: Pharmalittle: A new scandal for Novartis; opioid distributors offer to settle lawsuits
Good morning. Elizabeth Cooney here again in Boston, filling in for Ed Silverman while he…
When my favorite patient turned on me, I learned a lesson in the emotional work of doctoring
After I declined to prescribe him stimulant medication, one of my favorite patients became angry…
STAT Plus: 5 burning questions about mental health technology
New tech for mental health care is constantly cropping up. There are apps to manage…
Novartis was aware of manipulation of data supporting gene therapy approval, FDA says
AveXis, the gene therapy subsidiary of Swiss pharma giant Novartis, was aware of “data manipulation”…
For every 69 high-dose opioid prescriptions, U.S. pharmacies dispensed only one overdose-reversal drug
Prescriptions for naloxone have surged in recent years, as communities struggling with opioid addiction have…
STAT Plus: As CAR-T changes lives, Medicare’s top official explains why it’s proving so hard to pay for it
A version of this story first ran in D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s weekly newsletter about the…
STAT Plus: Help how? Patient charities favor the insured and more expensive brand-name drugs
Amid rising scrutiny of the ties between patient charities and drug makers, a new study…
STAT Plus: Pharmalittle: Pay-to-play clinical trials draw scrutiny; Chinese drug ingredients called U.S. threat
Good morning. Elizabeth Cooney here again, subbing from Boston HQ for the vacationing Ed Silverman….
STAT Plus: Show us the data: Bluebird raises questions by sitting on results of CAR-T drug critical to its future
Celgene (CELG) told investors last week that its experimental CAR-T therapy for patients with the…
Sabin Institute acquires rights to develop vaccines for Ebola and Marburg viruses
The nonprofit Sabin Vaccine Institute is taking over development of vaccines to protect against two…
STAT Plus: Pharmalittle: Guardant’s blood test could replace biopsy; Medicare boosts CAR-T coverage
Good morning. Elizabeth Cooney here, filling in for Ed Silverman this week as he makes…
STAT Plus: Alzheimer’s patients didn’t decline after getting a cocktail derived from young blood, but big questions remain
SAN FRANCISCO — Alzheimer’s patients who received an experimental protein cocktail derived from young blood…
STAT Plus: Colombian regulator fines Pfizer for inflating prices on several medicines
A Colombian regulatory agency fined Pfizer (PFE) nearly $25,000 for breaching the maximum prices for…
Opinion: Some people should stop being screened for cancer. Convincing them isn’t always easy
During my training to become a primary care physician, the importance of preventive cancer screening…
Citing ‘nerd tunnel vision,’ biologist George Church apologizes for contacts with Jeffrey Epstein
George Church, the prominent Harvard University biologist, offered a full-throated apology for having meetings and…
The vaccine whisperers: Counselors gently engage new parents before their doubts harden into certainty
SHERBROOKE, Québec — As a mother, Marie-Hélène Étienne-Rousseau wasn’t dead-set against vaccination, in a mind’s-made-up,…
STAT Plus: Blood test could replace biopsy for rare cancer treated by Keytruda
Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration marked a big step forward in the…
Purdue Pharma seeks to minimize its role in opioid crisis as it urges dismissal of Massachusetts suit
BOSTON — OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma on Friday sought to minimize its role both in…
STAT Plus: A compounder loses a battle with the FDA over using bulk substances
A federal judge ruled the Food and Drug Administration correctly prevented a company from using…
STAT Plus: He studies jerks on the internet. His latest project: researching how they talk about genetic testing
We talk a lot about the unintended consequences of spit kit businesses like 23andMe and…
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Opinion: STAT Plus: How to create successful leadership teams for cell and gene therapy companies
Cell and gene therapy companies are opening the door to a paradigm shift in medicine…
STAT Plus: Pharmalittle: Canadians worried by Trump importation plan; pharma creates R&D hubs in China for data
And so, another working week will soon draw to a close. Not a moment too…
Opinion: Rural Americans need help with ‘deaths of despair.’ Repealing the ACA won’t do that
Rural America is overwhelmed by suicides and overdoses, so-called deaths of despair. Those in power…
Opinion: Why the term ‘natural’ is so seductive — and possibly misleading
Several years ago, a friend asked two of us if an over-the-counter drug that promised…
A watchdog group sets aside emotions to assess drugs’ value. Patients say their lives are more than a number
Health economists walk a precarious tightrope: Their analyses are quantitative and, presumably, emotion-free. But health…
STAT Plus: PhRMA’s top lobbyist will leave at the end of August
WASHINGTON — Rodger Currie, the top lobbyist for the drug industry trade group PhRMA, is…
Listen: Canadian pills, corporate jets, & racists with spit kits
Will Canada run out of drugs? Should you ever read your partner’s diary? And what…
STAT Plus: Federal judge allows pharma to proceed with lawsuit against California transparency law
A federal judge breathed new life into a long-running effort by the pharmaceutical industry to…
STAT Plus: Pharmalittle: Female CEOs in biotech are still rare; Arizona sues Sacklers in Supreme Court
Rise and shine, everyone, another busy day is on the way. The pace has already…
STAT Plus: Life sciences VC firm Vida Ventures raises $600 million in second fund
The Boston-based venture capital firm Vida Ventures snagged $600 million more to invest in early-stage…
Trump proposes importing medicines, but he’s really seeking a quick political hit
The new White House plan to import medicines from Canada is being billed as historic,…
Opinion: How our health systems are working to prevent hospital drug shortages
Drug shortages are a major challenge for hospitals. Today, 121 key lifesaving drugs are in…
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To mitigate the effects of climate change, one researcher calls for a ‘contraception revolution’
Discussions about mitigating climate change usually involve strategies like cutting back on fossil fuel use…
Opinion: Why health companies are branding themselves as tech companies
From digital health startups to primary care groups, companies are increasingly branding themselves as tech…
You’ve swum with one, stepped on one, maybe swallowed one. This unsung invertebrate could teach us about aging
WOODS HOLE, Mass. — In case you were wondering, Kristin Gribble is not a basher…
Everything (or almost everything) you need to know about importing drugs from Canada
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s new plan to import cheaper drugs from Canada seems like a…
Opinion: Health insurers, like airplanes, need ‘black box recorders’
When two Boeing 737 Max airplanes crashed within the span of six months of each…
Opinion: The House has OK’d a unique patient identifier. Here’s what should happen next
It isn’t every day that the House of Representatives takes bipartisan action to reverse a…
NIH-funded project aims to build a ‘Google’ for biomedical data
Every year, the National Institutes of Health spends billions of dollars for biomedical research, ranging…
‘Show me the data!’: We asked experts to pick apart a clinic’s claims about ketamine
Clinics offering ketamine infusions tout it as “the path to happiness,” the “future of healing…
STAT Plus: 5 ways artificial intelligence is already changing cardiac care
Artificial intelligence is poised to alter care in many medical specialties over the next several…
With mini-placentas and mini-brains, scientists try to unravel the roots of psychiatric disorders
BALTIMORE — They float in ordinary lab dishes, no more eye-catching than a plain beige…
Congo officials say second Ebola case confirmed in city of Goma
KINSHASA, Congo — Officials in Congo on Tuesday said a second Ebola case had been confirmed…
Opinion: Pharma leaders: support the social contract on drug prices
When I was 13 years old, my doctor told me I had Crohn’s disease, a…
Opinion: Scientists worried patients couldn’t handle their own genetic testing results. They were wrong
When the Human Genome Project began in 1990, bioethicists feared that giving people the results…
STAT Plus: Democratic candidates are promising big on lower drug prices. These advisers are helping formulate their plans
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidates are making bigger promises than ever before on reforming the…