STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a big Roche investment in the U.S., estrogen patch shortages, and more
And so, another working week will soon draw to a close.Not a moment too soon, yes?This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans.…
Our agenda is still in the works, but we do plan to promenade extensiv…
We also hope to hold yet another listening party, where the rotation w…
Opinion: Lil Nas X’s bipolar diagnosis and the paradox of treatment
When Lil Nas X recently disclosed that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, one part of his story stood out to me more than the diagnosis itself.…
For years, he had suspected something was wrong.
Yet he resisted seeking treatment because he feared medication.
Focal therapy for localized prostate cancer has divided physicians. Will new data change minds?
For most localized solid tumors, it’s common for surgeons to try to preserve as much of the diseased organ as possible, removing only the cancer along with some healthy tissue surrounding it to avoid further spread.…
But for prostate cancer, treatment is usually all or nothing.
Except for patients with low-grade disease that’s unlikely to turn dea…
STAT+: Capricor Therapeutics’ Duchenne treatment is heading for an FDA rejection
This story first appeared in Adam’s Biotech Scorecard, a subscriber-only newsletter.STAT+ subscribers can sign up here to get it delivered to their inbox.…
Capricor Therapeutics is trying to stave off the Food and Drug Adminis…
STAT+: One of the most consequential year for cancer treatment, ever
This story first appeared in Adam’s Biotech Scorecard, a subscriber-only newsletter.STAT+ subscribers can sign up here to get it delivered to their inbox.…
Twenty-four hours later, my brain is still whirling over yesterday’s s…
I posted this on X yesterday but it’s worth repeating here: Between th…
Opinion: The global health aid architecture is collapsing. The faith economy isn’t
This month, the Trump administration announced nearly $2 billion for faith-based groups, the largest allocation of global health foreign assistance to faith-based organizations in more than 20 years.…
The bulk of it, $1.
4 billion, funds health services, including an $850 million award to W…
Opinion: Capricor’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug and the countless tiny decisions that can make or break a study
Five years ago, we moved my son into a college dorm.I know that makes us sound like thousands of other families with 18-year-olds, but my son has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.…
He couldn’t walk, and because of his waning arm strength, we all thoug…
Instead, we are now getting ready to move him into that same dorm agai…
STAT+: How Trump loyalist Heidi Overton became the president’s pick to run the FDA
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration did not overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule or flip the food pyramid until Heidi Overton, deputy director of domestic policy for the White House, had her say.…
While health secretary Robert F.
has been the public face of the Make America Healthy Again movement, O…
STAT+: New CDC director tells staff she is prepared to speak ‘truth to power’
WASHINGTON — Erica Schwartz, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told agency staff on Wednesday that she was prepared to disagree with administration leaders and sought to empower others to do the same, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by STAT.…
During her first all-hands address on Wednesday, Schwartz identified t…
She said she was ready to stand up to health secretary Robert F.
STAT+: Regeneron drug for disease that causes dangerous bone growth earns FDA approval
A medicine from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for an ultra-rare disease that causes bone to grow where it shouldn’t won approval on Wednesday, the capstone of a three decade-long effort.…
The hope is that the new medicine, called Pasatru, can help patients w…
Typically, people with FOP rely on wheelchairs by age 25 as the bone a…
STAT+: Brain organoids, kept alive more than five years, matured like human brains
A little more than two years ago, a junior scientist walked into Paola Arlotta’s Harvard office with a set of mesmerizing images and asked if she wanted to see what the old brain organoids look like.…
Arlotta, a developmental neurobiologist, turned in surprise.
STAT+: What Epic did — and didn’t — say about AI at its annual meeting
You’re reading the web edition of STAT’s AI Prognosis newsletter, our subscriber-exclusive guide to artificial intelligence in health care and medicine.…
Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Wednesday.
Before and after intermission at its annual meeting, a couple Epic sta…
STAT+: Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial
A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, added to an existing treatment, slowed the return of melanoma and its spread to other parts of the body in a late-stage clinical trial, the drugmakers Merck and Moderna announced Wednesday, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.…
So-called “neoantigen” vaccines have long been seen as having potentia…
In this case the personalized vaccine, intismeran, was combined with M…