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Adam Feuerstein✡️
@adamfeuerstein.bsky.social
Reporter at STAT. The Harry Kane of biotech. Dog ❤️er. Polk Award winner. Said one analyst: The likes of Adam Feuerstein attack viciously.
So @statnews.com has had a LOT of coverage of the ouster of the FDA's Peter Marks. The news: statnews.com/2025/03/28/f... Analysis from @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social statnews.com/2025/03/30/f... Analysis from @matthewherper.bsky.social statnews.com/2025/03/31/r...
FDA’s ‘key man’ Peter Marks is out. Biotech investors will now deal with the consequences www.statnews.com/2025/03/30/f...
FDA’s ‘key man’ Peter Marks is out. Biotech investors will now deal with the consequences
Peter Marks’ ouster comes at a time when the sector is already suffering through a years-long public markets slump.
statnews.com
RFK Jr. misleads, deceives or simply lies when he claims the measles vaccine "routinely" causes deaths. IT DOES NOT. @matthewherper.bsky.social lays out the facts. www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/r...
RFK Jr. says measles vaccine routinely causes deaths. That's not true
RFK Jr.'s claims on the safety of vaccine safety aren't backed by the data.
statnews.com
The Senate confirmation hearing for FDA Commissioner nominee Marty Makary is scheduled to start at 10 am ET. STAT's live blog is here for those who want to check in during the day: www.statnews.com/2025/03/06/m...
Live updates: Marty Makary, Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner, testifies before Senate panel
Marty Makary, Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner, testifies before a Senate panel this morning. Follow STAT's live updates.
statnews.com
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla inflicts injury on his company — and all of pharma The hiring of a former top FDA official amplifies ‘revolving door’ criticism at the worst possible time www.statnews.com/2025/02/24/p...
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla inflicts injury on his company — and all of pharma
The hiring of a former top FDA official amplifies "revolving door" criticism at the worst possible time, STAT's Adam Feuerstein writes.
statnews.com
Trump administration rehires some FDA employees it fired www.statnews.com/2025/02/23/f... via @lizzylawrence.bsky.social
Trump administration rehires some FDA employees it fired
The Trump administration has started quietly rehiring some FDA employees just days after it fired them.
statnews.com
A race to the bottom — too much weight loss? A new, must-read story from my colleague @elaineywchen.bsky.social Patients in trials of Eli Lilly's next-gen obesity drug think they're losing too much weight. One started skipping doses, another is making himself eat caloric foods. Link below...
This week's Biotech Scorecard newsletter: Why biotech’s future is threatened by zombies (Not the movie kind, the money-wasting, space-sucking negative enterprise value kind!) www.statnews.com/2025/02/20/w...
You absolutely must read this interview: FDA’s former top food official says Trump firings are ‘dismantling’ the division In candid interview, Jim Jones says moves will undercut RFK Jr.’s agenda www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/f... via @matthewherper.bsky.social
FDA’s former top food official says Trump firings are ‘dismantling’ the division
The former head of the FDA's food division told STAT he resigned because cuts made by the Trump administration imperil the agenda set forth by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
statnews.com
Biogen $BIIB partners with Stoke Therapeutics $STOK on drug for severe epilepsy www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/b...
Biogen partners with Stoke Therapeutics on drug for severe epilepsy
Biogen and Stoke Therapeutics have signed a deal to co-develop and sell Stoke’s experimental drug for Dravet syndrome, outside the U.S.
statnews.com
Duchenne gene therapy from Solid Biosciences $SLDB produces promising results in early study www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/s... via @jasonmast.bsky.social $RGRX $SRPT
Duchenne gene therapy from Solid Biosciences produces promising results in early study
Solid said that the first patients to receive its Duchenne gene therapy all produced high levels of the target protein, an early sign of promise
statnews.com
Drug inspectors, AI experts, maternal health workers: Trump’s health agency cuts are far-reaching In interviews w/ STAT, those who were fired, along with officials who remain, argued the cuts would be deeply felt. www.statnews.com/2025/02/17/t... via @helenbranswell.bsky.social
Drug inspectors, AI experts, maternal health workers: Trump’s health agency cuts are far-reaching
In interview after interview with STAT, those who were fired from federal health and science agencies, along with officials who remain, argued the cuts would be deeply felt.
statnews.com
Remember the heroic Kate Winslet character in the movie Contagion? Well, they just fired the Kate Winslets... CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t... via @helenbranswell.bsky.social
CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health
Members of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service were warned Friday that many of them were about to be fired
statnews.com
A reminder that I can be reached on Signal at stafaf.54
BREAKING: Trump administration to fire thousands at health agencies www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/f... via @statnews.com
Trump administration to fire thousands at health agencies
The Trump administration is set to eliminate thousands of federal health care jobs Friday, targeting employees across agencies who were hired in the past one to two years.
statnews.com
Biotech is in a dark place. The market offers one beatdown after another. Sentiment is lousy and the bad mood is relentless, to the point where people are seriously wondering if a sector turnaround is ever possible. Sorry, but it's just depressing out there... www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/b...
Biotech is in a dark place
Biotech and drug stocks, collectively, are down an average of 16% over the past three months. The closely watched XBI index is down 19% in the same time period.
statnews.com
As outcry builds over Trump cuts to NIH payments, drugmakers are MIA On last night's earnings call, $VRTX CEO Reshma Kewalramani said nothing about the NIH, yet Vertex owes some of that $11B in cystic fibrosis drug sales to foundational biomedical research funded by NIH....
$ABSI and Generate Biomedicines say they’re using AI to conjure drugs from scratch. Documents, experts suggest otherwise www.statnews.com/2025/02/10/a... via @brittanytrang.bsky.social
Two biotechs say they're using AI to conjure drugs from scratch. Their documents suggest otherwise
A STAT examination shows how AI-powered biotechs like Absci and Generate Biomedicines routinely aggrandize their AI capabilities.
statnews.com
The CRISPR companies are not OK Today, in @statnews.com - a must-read story from my colleague @jasonmast.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/02/06/c...
The CRISPR companies are not OK
Gene editing promised a revolution, but biotech layoffs, stock slumps, and industry struggles reveal a stark reality: CRISPR is hard to do profitably.
statnews.com
Austin Leclaire was a remarkable young man with Duchenne who raised awareness about his devastating disease, and as a patient advocate, played a pivotal role in spurring the development of the first medicines to treat it. Austin died on Feb. 1. He was 26. www.statnews.com/2025/02/06/a...
Remembering a remarkable Duchenne champion
Patient advocate Austin Leclaire, who died Feb. 1, played a pivotal role in spurring the development of the first medicines to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
statnews.com
Personalized cancer vaccine shows potential in kidney cancer www.statnews.com/2025/02/05/p... via @statnews.com
Personalized cancer vaccine shows potential in kidney cancer
In a Phase 1 study, nine people with advanced kidney cancer became cancer free after receiving personalized vaccines.
statnews.com
VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM. (Yes, I'm typing in my loud voice.) @matthewherper.bsky.social lays out the facts. www.statnews.com/2025/02/03/v...
Here is how we know that vaccines do not cause autism
Vaccines do not cause autism. You’ve almost certainly read that before — but often without a full explanation of how we know it to be true. Here's how we know.
statnews.com
Vertex wins FDA approval for non-opioid pain drug, setting stage for closely watched rollout www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/v... via @jonathanwosen.bsky.social
Vertex wins FDA approval for non-opioid pain drug, setting stage for closely watched rollout
Vertex Pharmaceuticals won FDA approval for a non-opioid drug for moderate to severe acute pain
statnews.com
In this week's Biotech Scorecard newsletter: MASH drugs have reached a meaningful tipping point for patients and investors. $MDGL already topping $400 million in annualized sales. $AKRO reversing cirrhosis in F4 patients + $ETNB following ...
The 7 big topics RFK Jr. addressed during a fiery confirmation hearing www.statnews.com/2025/01/29/r... via @statnews.com
The 7 big topics RFK Jr. addressed during a fiery confirmation hearing
The nominee faced questions on Medicaid, abortion, drug price negotiation, vaccines, campaign fundraising, and food and chronic disease.
statnews.com
Hey folks -- STAT will be covering tomorrow's RFK Jr. confirmation hearing with a live blog run by our indefatigable DC correspondents. Stay tuned tomorrow morning for a link. Thank you!
FDA cancellation of the Feb. 25 adcomm for Novartis' drug Fabhalta is NOT Trump related, Novartis told me. FDA decided adcomm wasn't needed to complete the drug review.