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 in response to them. You can submit a letter […]

It pains Rochelle Walensky, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to hear people say that the agency can’t be trusted. But these days, she said, people should be cautious about the vaccination information on its website.  “What I can say is the vaccine information on the CDC is not necessarily that […]

LSD reduced symptoms of anxiety in a midstage study published Thursday, paving the way for additional testing and possible medical approval of a psychedelic drug that has been banned in the U.S. for more than a half century. The results from drugmaker Mindmed tested several doses of LSD in patients with moderate-to-severe generalized anxiety disorder, with the benefits […]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, building on the effort by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to curb vaccine requirements and other health mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic. DeSantis also announced on Wednesday the creation of a state-level “Make America Healthy Again” commission modeled after similar initiatives pushed at […]

Gilead Sciences, the largest maker of HIV medicines, is seeking to boost prices significantly for several treatments that are widely distributed by state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. And the move is adding to financial uncertainty for the programs on top of concerns prompted by Trump administration funding cuts. The company recently told the state programs […]

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday urged pharmaceutical companies to publicly prove that their Covid-19 products work, saying in a Truth Social post that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “being ripped apart over this question.”  “I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” he wrote in what appeared to be his […]

The Trump administration’s restoration of federal research funding to Columbia University has revived a landmark diabetes study that has tracked patients for nearly 30 years and vastly expanded understanding of the disease, its treatment, and its prevention. The study, which has been led by a Harvard Medical School professor since it began in 1996, was forced to shut down […]

An investigational therapy from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals did not significantly lower blood pressure in a key Phase 2 trial, raising questions about the benefit of the twice-a-year treatment as it enters late-stage testing. Among high-risk patients already taking at least two common hypertension treatments, a 300-mg dose of Alnylam’s zilebesiran led to a reduction in blood […]

Artificial intelligence company Abridge held a meeting with hospital customers on Thursday to address “confusion” about how it may be impacted by new AI products coming to Epic Systems’ widely used electronic health record software.  At its annual customer meeting last week, Epic announced that by early next year, it would release a Microsoft-powered AI […]

WASHINGTON — Susan Monarez, less than a month into the job as director of the Centers for Disease Control, entered a meeting Monday with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his office in Washington, D.C., along with his deputy, Stefanie Spear. They asked for her resignation, citing concerns about insubordination and her integrity, including […]