After 12 years leading Utah-based techbio company Recursion, CEO Chris Gibson is stepping down. Recursion’s R&D head and Chief Commercial Officer Najat Khan will become CEO effective Jan. 1. Gibson co-founded Recursion on this day in 2013 and has served as its chief executive ever since, through the lows and recent highs for companies hoping […]

Compass Pathways, which is developing a psilocybin treatment for severe depression, said Tuesday it now expects a potential approval decision from U.S. regulators in late 2026 or early 2027, nine to 12 months earlier than previously anticipated. Following what it described as a “positive” meeting with the Food and Drug Administration, Compass is now planning […]

Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54. Caribou Biosciences said Monday that […]

Tara Bannow covers hospitals, providers, and insurers. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70. Medicare on Friday followed through with its earlier proposal to reduce payment for surgeries, outpatient procedures, and other services it believes can be done more efficiently starting in 2026. The controversial move represents a significant change to how thousands of […]

Below is a lightly edited, AI-generated transcript of the “First Opinion Podcast” interview with vaccine and global health expert Seth Berkley. Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the “First Opinion Podcast” newsletter. […]

The 1 in 5 Americans suffering from chronic pain may soon lose access to evidence-based interventions that have existed for decades. Looming changes to Medicare coverage threaten access to local anesthetic blockade, or “peripheral nerve block” procedures. Medicare administrative contractors across the country have recently proposed eliminating coverage for these minimally invasive, non-opioid treatment options […]

Andrew Joseph covers health, medicine, and the biopharma industry in Europe. You can reach Andrew on Signal at drewqjoseph.45. A bidding war has broken into the open for obesity-focused Metsera, with Novo Nordisk on Thursday saying it had made an offer for the biotech, a month after Pfizer announced its plan to purchase the firm.  […]

In 2021, I was a University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. candidate lecturing on my research about how users turn to chatbots for help coping with suicidal ideation. I wasn’t prepared for my students’ response. I argued that choosing to talk to a chatbot about thoughts of suicide isn’t “crazy” or unusual. This, I explained, didn’t […]

Something remarkable, and controversial, is unfolding in American medicine. The Food and Drug Administration says it is fast-tracking leucovorin, a long-established drug, for potential use in treating cerebral folate deficiency, a condition connected to the presence of folate receptor autoantibodies estimated to be present in up to 76% of children diagnosed with autism. Like many […]