STAT News

Top of the morning to you. And a fine one it is here at the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are snoozing away and a breathtaking autumn landscape is visible in all directions. Moreover, a warm and shiny sun is making a welcome appearance. To celebrate, yes, we are downing a cup of stimulation — hot buttered rum is our preference today. Feel free to join us. As always, here are your tidbits. Hope your day goes well and you conquer the world. … After months of an

LOWVILLE, N.Y. — A child in rural northern New York has died after contracting measles, marking the state’s first death from the disease in 30 years, state officials announced Monday. The child died in Lewis County, about 93 miles (150 kilometers) north of Syracuse, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.Read the rest…

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here. Good morning and happy election day. At the very least, after today, we can hope for a short respite from relentless campaign fundraising text messages. Read the rest…

In this 2026 midterm election season, health care ranks third on voters’ minds. That’s no surprise: U.S. life expectancy persistently lags those in comparable countries despite substantially greater spending on health care. As health and health care become increasingly political, we asked whether the leading drivers of mortality looked different by political geography in the United States. In 2024, the mortality rate, adjusted for differences in age composition, was 19.2% higher

Last fall I attended a meditation retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I had hoped for a respite from a busy ophthalmology practice in Portland, Ore. Instead, I returned to the most difficult challenges I have faced in practice. One night, we were asked to remain awake in meditation through dawn. The teachers explained that this “all-nighter” would be quite different from those in our past, such as late nights studying in college or socializing with friends.Read the rest…

The news out of the U.K. last year that eight healthy children had been born to mothers carrying disease-causing mutations in their mitochondria showed the promise of a pioneering reproductive technique known as “three-parent IVF.” The long-anticipated results seemingly showed the procedure, formally called mitochondrial replacement techniques, or MRT, could reduce the risk of babies inheriting sometimes fatal diseases, and raised hopes that other countries, such as the U.S. where

NEW YORK — A person in Washington state has died from complications of the bird flu, the first such U.S. death in a year. The Yakima County resident, who had previous health conditions, was exposed to avian influenza at a dairy with infected cattle and had been hospitalized. The person died Sunday, county health officials said.Read the rest…

This is the online version of STAT’s weekly email newsletter Health Care Inc. Sign up here. A friend just introduced me to Krillion, a quick quiz game that rewards rare answers. Incredibly fun. Give it a try, and tell me your score: bob.herman@statnews.com. A referendum on workers’ health care frustrations Tomorrow, tens of millions of people will cast their ballots in the midterm elections. And for many who get health coverage through their jobs, the unending financi

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. Wishing you a colorful Día de los Muertos. Remembering my grandmother, in particular, a zoology professor who sparked my penchant for all things biological. Her dissertation was on shrimp chromatophores, I believe. The need-to-know this morning UniQure said the Food and Drug Administration accepted the marketing application for its AMT-130 gene

After months of anticipation, the Food and Drug Administration gave tentative approval to Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories to make a generic version of a groundbreaking HIV prevention medicine, a key step in widening access for dozens of low- and middle-income countries. The company, one of the world’s largest generic drugmakers, plans to start shipping the medicine next month as part of an effort propelled, in part, by several global health organizations to ensure the drug becomes avai

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and refreshing, because that oh-so familiar routine of Zoom meetings, deadlines, and bustling about has predictably returned. Not surprising, though, is it? To cope, we are pursuing the usual ritual of firing up the coffee kettle and brewing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is cinnamon mocha. Yummy. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you along on your journey. We hope tod

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here. Good morning! We’ve got something a little different for you today – an amazing new story from Megan Molteni, and also a peek at the story behind the story. Read the rest…

Over the last eight months, STAT has investigated the ways MRT is marketed as a fertility treatment for older women, despite scant evidence it works. The procedure, popularly called mitochondrial replacement techniques or “three-parent IVF,” is illegal in the United States, but it is accessible via a sprawling for-profit tourism industry, connecting women in the U.S. and Europe to clinics abroad.Read the rest…

Over the past decade, Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent has become the top-selling drug in immunology, bringing in tens of billions in revenue while transforming outcomes for the 1.4 million patients currently on the therapy for conditions including eczema, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. But investors and doctors are intensely following an experimental therapy positioned to rival the pharma blockbuster, with results from a key study fast approaching. Massachusetts bio

Early in my career as a maternal fetal medicine specialist, I met two pregnant women who had ovarian cancer. One of them was expecting twins. They were introduced to be each other’s support network during and after the pregnancy, often meeting for coffee with their newborns and comparing wigs after hair loss from the chemotherapy they received. The mother of twins is still alive today. The other didn’t survive beyond her child’s second birthday. When I spoke with the

On my recent travels, I met a healthy, active man in his early 60s who runs a small business.  This year, his family’s monthly premium reached nearly $5,000 — more than a quarter of his pre‑tax income. He made the difficult choice to keep coverage only for his wife and two children, hoping to stay healthy until he is eligible for Medicare. No family should have to make that choice, but this story is not unusual. More than 27 million Americans lacked health insurance

TIRANA, Albania — As you drive from the Tirana International Airport toward the heart of the Albanian capital, car dealerships and shopping center-lined freeways give way to tidy rows of Communist-era housing blocks, their concrete walls splashed in Funfetti-hued dazzle camo — reminders of the country’s darker periods hiding beneath a cheerful riot of cheap paint. Continue south and on your right, freshly laid roads snake up into hills dotted with luxury homes behind high wh

WASHINGTON — No matter what happens on Election Day, the midterms will have sweeping implications for American health care. The future of essential health policies, the politics surrounding health issues, and insight into the inner workings of the remade federal health infrastructure will all be affected by Tuesday’s outcomes. A Congress controlled by Democrats could slow down policymaking and amp up investigations. If Republicans maintain a majority, on the other hand, that cou

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. And here is our regular feature in which we highlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Vir Biotechnology hired David Liu as chief medical officer

The reminders to vote in Tuesday’s midterms are ubiquitous. Some health scholars have another reminder: that elections, especially divisive ones, can stress the heart.  Studies have found a significantly higher chance of arrhythmias in the weeks just before and after elections, and an increased rate of hospitalizations for heart attacks right after voting day. Read the rest…