STAT
DECEMBER 19, 2023
Pfizer is this year’s anti-Eli Lilly. If David Ricks is the best biopharma CEO of 2023 , then Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is, unfortunately, the worst. My annual Worst Biopharma CEO list is typically populated with blockheads and scoundrels. That’s not why Bourla is here. The reason is accountability. Strategic missteps , financial miscalculations, and scientific setbacks have plunged Pfizer into a deep crisis.
BioPharma Dive
DECEMBER 20, 2023
The Healey center is at the front of ALS research and care, earning acclaim from patients, doctors and scientists. Still, the complexities of the disease and of drug development have brought hard-felt losses.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Pharmacy Times
NOVEMBER 6, 2023
AI is expected to significantly quicken the pace of drug design and development, while improving the success rate of new medicines.
Pharmaceutical Technology
NOVEMBER 21, 2023
Texas AG has sued Pfizer and Tris Pharma for providing adulterated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug, Quillivant XR, to children.
Advertisement
Running a healthcare facility requires precision and care, not just for patients but also for your staff. Our guide, "A Buyer’s Guide to Payroll & HCM Services," helps healthcare providers choose the best provider. Efficient payroll management ensures timely, accurate payments, critical for maintaining staff morale and trust. Compliance support helps navigate complex healthcare regulations and avoid costly fines.
STAT
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Since the FDA’s approval of lecanemab (marketed as Leqembi) and Medicare’s recent decision to cover the drug, I have met with Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones who are anxious to know whether they may benefit from this new treatment. They come in hope that this new medication may slow the progression of a cruel memory-robbing and personality-eroding disease.
PharmaVoice
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
This year’s honorees are influential and devoted leaders lifting the pillars of the industry to new heights.
Pharmacist Digest brings together the best content for pharmacists from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
STAT
DECEMBER 27, 2023
Reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption reduces the risk of developing oral cavity and esophagus cancers, according to a special report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. But more data are needed to conclude whether the same is true for several other cancer types, including colorectal, breast, and liver cancer. Even so, it is likely that reducing or ceasing to drink alcohol will lessen the risk of these cancers, said Farhad Islami, a cancer epidemiologist at the American C
STAT
DECEMBER 26, 2023
There’s ample evidence that private equity buyouts in health care drive up costs. A new study shows quality declines, too. Hospitals acquired by private equity saw a 25% uptick in adverse events compared with controls, according to a new study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings add to an accumulating body of literature underscoring the harm that occurs when financial investors take over health care providers — not only hospitals, but nur
STAT
DECEMBER 29, 2023
It’s time to take stock of the year that was in health and science: the meteoric rise of weight loss drugs , the approval of the first CRISPR-based therapy , the continuing effects of abortion access restrictions after the Dobbs decision, and much more. Below is our annual list of stories that STAT staffers loved, and wish that they had written.
STAT
DECEMBER 19, 2023
American taxpayers footed the bill for at least $1.8 trillion in federal and state health care expenditures in 2022 — about 41% of the nearly $4.5 trillion in both public and private health care spending the U.S. recorded last year, according to the annual report released last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. On top of that $1.8 trillion, third-party programs, which are often government-funded, and public health programs accounted for another $600 billion in spendin
Speaker: Chris Antypas and Josh Halladay
Access to limited distribution drugs and payer contracts are key to pharmacy expansion. But how do you prepare your operations to take the next step? Meaningful data: Collect and share clinical data regarding outcomes, utilization, and more Reporting: Limited distribution models require efficient tracking and reporting systems Workflows: Align workflows with specific pharma and payer contractual requirements For in-depth, expert insights on pharmacy expansion, watch this webinar from Inovalon.
STAT
DECEMBER 20, 2023
WASHINGTON — The patient had already made the agonizing decision to start chemotherapy to address her colon cancer, even though she was 30 weeks pregnant. Within a day, the decisions got harder: her colon perforated, and the pain was excruciating. She would need urgent surgery — and she would have to undergo an emergency C-section immediately.
STAT
DECEMBER 15, 2023
A Texas woman’s unsuccessful legal fight for an abortion on medical emergency grounds drew nationwide headlines in recent days, but her plight is hardly a rare occurrence amid vague and highly restrictive state laws in the post-Roe era. Kate Cox is likely one of hundreds, if not thousands, of Texans who’ve faced a similar struggle this year to get an abortion for medical reasons, according to a STAT review of studies and abortion data from other states.
STAT
DECEMBER 12, 2023
Medicare Advantage beneficiaries on Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the health insurance giant Humana illegally used an algorithm to prematurely cut off payment for rehabilitation care after patients suffered serious illnesses and injuries. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Western Kentucky, argues Humana’s reliance on the algorithm, known as nH Predict, was part of a fraudulent scheme to reap a windfall by systematically denying claims to desperately ill people
STAT
DECEMBER 13, 2023
PHILADELPHIA — The meds Shelby Campbell needed for her rare blood disorder stopped working just after her sixth birthday. She lost her appetite and was often doubled over in pain. She continued getting blood transfusions but her doctors struggled to manage side effects that threatened her organs. By the time she turned 7, the doctors told her parents they had to do something — soon.
Advertisement
Are you still using workarounds to manage your daily operations? To achieve peak performance, it's time to explore other options for specialty and infusion pharmacy software. Streamline pharmacy operations and improve clinical performance with automated processing, real-time data exchange, and electronic decision support. Download this helpful infographic to: Drive efficiency and patient adherence from referral receipt to delivery and ongoing care – all with our Pharmacy Cloud.
STAT
DECEMBER 8, 2023
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the world’s first medicine based on CRISPR gene-editing technology, a groundbreaking treatment for sickle cell disease that delivers a potential cure for people born with the chronic and life-shortening blood disorder. The new medicine , called Casgevy, is made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics.
STAT
DECEMBER 20, 2023
Mary Brown was sipping coffee at home in Ontario, Calif., Sunday morning when a friend sent a video clip that ruined her breakfast. It contained a skit from “Saturday Night Live” the night before about the new gene therapies for sickle cell disease. In it, workers gather for an office white-elephant-style gift exchange. A white employee, played by Kate McKinnon, gives a Black employee with sickle cell, played by Kenan Thompson, enrollment in “Vertex Pharmaceutical and CRISPR
STAT
DECEMBER 21, 2023
Odds are, you’ve gotten at least one of the unnerving letters in your mailbox this year: “We’re writing to inform you of a cybersecurity incident,” it might start. It’s the standard notice many health care organizations are required to provide when your protected health information gets exposed — and in 2023, data leaks, hacks, and mishandling led more of them to be delivered than ever before.
STAT
DECEMBER 6, 2023
As a teenager, Marie Tornyenu was always having to explain herself. If it wasn’t the chronic absences that had her doing homework from a hospital bed, it was the quilted blanket she carried with her on the days she could attend class. “It was a running joke that I was like 80 years old,” she said. “I would usually just laugh it off because the alternative was too depressing.
STAT
DECEMBER 7, 2023
TIJUANA, Mexico — Just over a decade ago, when Crystal Pérez Lira needed an abortion, she had to leave Mexico. The procedure was illegal in her home state of Baja California and so deeply stigmatized that even Pérez Lira supported the procedure only for those who were raped. Until she unexpectedly got pregnant. She traveled to the U.S. for help, walking alone across the border from Tijuana to San Diego, first for a health check and a compulsory ultrasound, and then back for a se
STAT
DECEMBER 5, 2023
WASHINGTON — Pfizer has decided to leave the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, according to two sources familiar with the decision. The departure is a blow to BIO, which represents members ranging from small biotech startups to massive pharmaceutical companies. The group on Tuesday announced its new CEO, rare disease advocate and biotech executive John Crowley.
STAT
DECEMBER 6, 2023
The New England Journal of Medicine, the world’s oldest continually published medical journal, publicly reckoned with its history and complicity surrounding slavery and racism Wednesday, publishing the first of a series of essays by independent historians on the role the prestigious publication has played in perpetuating racist thinking in medicine that continues to this day.
STAT
NOVEMBER 30, 2023
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — There was the beeping of monitors, the stiff sheets, the sterile smell of the hospital room. Mostly, there was pain. Sharp, relentless pain. Mike Messino was recovering from a successful surgery, but the nerve blocks had worn off. He spent two full hours waiting for a nurse to inject pain medication. When he’d worked in this hospital, he’d made sure patients didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes for that kind of care.
STAT
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Mayo Clinic will spend $5 billion to reinvent its flagship medical campus in Rochester, Minn., infusing digital technologies into several new buildings designed to present a 21st-century vision of clinical care, the organization said Tuesday. The project, to include five new buildings with 2.4 million square feet of space, will merge Mayo’s traditional medical services with its increasing investments in artificial intelligence and digital tools.
STAT
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it is investigating whether CAR-T therapy, which uses genetically modified white blood cells to attack tumors, can in rare cases cause lymphoma, a blood cancer. “Although the overall benefits of these products continue to outweigh their potential risks for their approved uses, FDA is investigating the identified risk of T cell malignancy with serious outcomes, including hospitalization and death, and is evaluating the need for regulatory
STAT
DECEMBER 4, 2023
The Senate health care committee will consider a sweeping bill next week meant to combat the opioid epidemic, according to four lobbyists and a congressional aide familiar with the legislation. The proposal would reauthorize a number of programs first created by the SUPPORT Act, an addiction-focused bill that Congress first passed in 2018. Many of those programs’ authorizations expired earlier this year, however, leading addiction treatment advocates to fret that lawmakers —
STAT
DECEMBER 5, 2023
CVS Health is promising to simplify how its pharmacies get paid for drugs. But that doesn’t mean the drugs will get cheaper. The country’s biggest pharmacy chain said it’s switching to a system where pharmacy benefit managers, employers, and other insurers pay for drugs based on the cost of the drug plus a set markup and dispensing fee.
STAT
DECEMBER 5, 2023
Here are two things that are true. The world needs more effective flu vaccines. And pharmaceutical companies that learned of the vaccine-making power of the messenger RNA platform during the Covid-19 pandemic need new markets for their technology.
STAT
NOVEMBER 24, 2023
Reports this week that China is experiencing a surge in respiratory infections in young children triggered flashbacks of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic among infectious disease watchers. But a rapidly organized meeting Thursday between the World Health Organization and health officials in China assuaged much of that concern. The evidence presented to the WHO team pointed to what’s sometimes called an immunity gap that was created by the pandemic.
STAT
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
Reports of increased respiratory disease among children in China have put disease watchers elsewhere on alert, triggering anxiety that the outbreak — if it is indeed one outbreak — holds uncomfortable echoes of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. But at present, a number of experts say the activity has a likely explanation: China’s population, especially its young children, probably developed significant immunological susceptibility to a range of respiratory pathogens d
STAT
DECEMBER 4, 2023
OK, marijuana is now legal. So where’s the public health approach? Strictly speaking, marijuana use isn’t fully legal across the U.S. yet. But when Montana and Missouri have legalized recreational use and the Senate is debating legal banking for cannabis companies, you know it’s all over but the shouting.
STAT
NOVEMBER 27, 2023
About 20 million disabled people will be erased if the U.S. Census Bureau moves forward with changes to disability data collection methods. That is because many disabled people will no longer be counted as disabled by the new questions the Census is proposing to use starting in 2025 with the annual American Community Survey (ACS). As disabled people, and as scholars who study disability measurement and use disability data for our research, we have grave concerns about this proposed change.
STAT
DECEMBER 20, 2023
Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. Hey there. Today, we get into why Amy Abernethy is leaving Verily, and why the ongoing reckoning with AI doesn’t necessarily need the voice of Google to chime in. Plus, Jason Mast pops in to give an update on Uniqure’s puzzling approach to presenting trial results.
STAT
NOVEMBER 16, 2023
LONDON — Regulators in the U.K. on Thursday approved a CRISPR-based medicine to treat both sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, making it the world’s first therapy built on the revolutionary gene-editing technology and ushering in a new phase of genetic medicine. The authorization of the therapy, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is itself not a surprise.
STAT
NOVEMBER 24, 2023
UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division is already the largest employer of physicians in the United States, but allegations in a new lawsuit suggest Optum is hungry for more. Emanate Health, a nonprofit group of hospitals and physicians in California, filed a federal lawsuit Monday, alleging Optum pushed it to agree not to compete for primary care physicians, a violation of antitrust law.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
363 
Let's personalize your content