When my father needs insulin, he drives 25 miles round trip to the nearest Walgreens in a remote corner of California. That trip takes him about 50 minutes, nearly an hour every time he needs his medication, if he has a car available. It is the only pharmacy within that distance where he can get […]

First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and provocative articles about the life sciences writ large, written by biotech insiders, health care workers, researchers, and others. To encourage robust, good-faith discussion about issues raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to them. You can submit a […]

Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us, and we’ll share it with others. That’s right. Send us your changes, and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going. Our usual feature — in which we spotlight […]

On Oct. 16, President Trump promised to slash the price of brand-name GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy to $150 a month. Even after a top health official suggested price negotiations between drugmakers and the administration were ongoing, the announcement sent Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly stocks tumbling. For patients who’ve been priced out, that […]

The brain is the seat of the self. When it breaks, it doesn’t just wound, it distorts, erodes, and often erases. I’ve spent a lifetime witnessing that erasure, not with clinical detachment but in the intimacy of family meals, dark hospital corridors, and my own internal unraveling. My father’s brain betrayed him. A military service-related […]

Tara Bannow covers hospitals, providers, and insurers. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70. Premiums for employer-provided health insurance spiked by more than double the rate of inflation this year, driving the cost of a family plan to almost $27,000, a new survey finds.  KFF’s annual survey of more than 1,800 small and large […]

Catheters physically save my life every single day. But my catheters, and with them my health and safety, are now at risk under a new proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to include urological and ostomy supplies in the competitive bidding program. On Nov. 1, CMS will implement a change that adds urological […]

Earlier this year, I was invited to discuss gestational surrogacy with dozens of the heads of women’s rights organizations looking to shape global policy. I was startled to discover I was the only participant on the Zoom call who had anything positive to say about surrogacy. Every single speaker condemned the practice as exploitative, coercive, […]

Andrew Joseph covers health, medicine, and the biopharma industry in Europe. You can reach Andrew on Signal at drewqjoseph.45. BERLIN — Enhertu has become a staple treatment in advanced breast cancer, but new data presented Saturday at the European Society for Medical Oncology’s annual conference show the drug can have powerful benefits for patients when […]

As part of its bid to transform the future of cancer screening and seize control of a potentially vast and increasingly competitive market, Grail announced fresh data on Friday from a large U.S. study of its flagship blood-based test for detecting dozens of tumor types. The results reinforce some of the company’s arguments for a […]