STAT

Announcing #STATBreakthrough Summit East in NYC this March! Join STAT for our first 2025 summit as we combine innovative speakers, impactful live journalism, and an influential audience to explore how advancements in R&D are reshaping medicine. Register now and save with early access pricing: https://trib.al/KzOZbDU

Opinion: RFK Jr. should look to what his uncle might have done on public health. That means supporting a large-scale public health program promoting evidence-based solutions, implemented locally and meeting people where they are. We could call it a Marshall Plan for obesity, writes Vishal Khetpal in First Opinion. https://trib.al/EjHTzfF

Last week, Florida’s surgeon general recommended that communities in the state stop fluoridating their water: https://trib.al/AlmsiFS It's a move that could be a sign of more #publichealth shifts to come under the incoming Trump administration.? ? Why is #fluoride controversial again? Do we still need fluoridation? Read more to understand the issue: https://trib.al/d97857V

Sanofi is the third company - along with J&J and Eli Lilly - to attempt to change the way it pays for medicines under the 340B program. In a letter sent to hospitals and clinics, Sanofi indicated that certain hospitals covered by the 340B Drug Discount Program would receive credits for medicines ordered at full price from a wholesaler. However, the credit would only be issued after the hospital or clinic submits claims data, including the prescription order, a patient’s hospital visit and dispensing information. Read more: https://trib.al/y836DvU

Health officials in California have discovered #birdflu virus in raw milk for sale in a store in the state: https://trib.al/2cjru4x It's news that scientists following the outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows have been anticipating and worrying about for some time.? The interstate trade in #rawmilk is illegal, because of the risk of serious illness from drinking unpasteurized milk. But in Washington and many other places across the country, raw milk is being transported across state lines and openly sold to enthusiastic customers — and the FDA is doing nothing to stop it.? Read how easy it was for one STAT reporter to buy raw milk: https://trib.al/3ovFuVi

Biotech and pharma leaders shared their reactions to President-elect Trump's selection of Marty Makary M.D., M.P.H. for FDA commissioner. ?? “As it relates to trading the health care space, we think investors will have a favorable bias toward Makary — maybe boosting the pharma and biotech spaces a bit given recent pressure." - Jared Holz, Mizuho health care strategist ?? “The FDA needs a leader who can build and strengthen its most critical teams: the frontline reviewers. I believe Dr. Makary understands this and will prioritize empowering these teams." - Luciana Borio, former FDA chief scientist; senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, venture capitalist at ARCH Venture Partners. ?? "One may disagree with him on his views, for example, his stance on not masking children during the pandemic. But at least he is someone with whom you can have meaningful scientific discussions.” - John LaMattina, former president of Pfizer Global Research and Development and a board member for PureTech Health Read more comments in this story: https://trib.al/OLh9DV2

President-elect Donald Trump has selected Dave Weldon, a physician and former congressman, to lead the #CDC. Weldon has a history of backing controversial and, in the views of most scientists, discredited ideas that linked childhood vaccines with increasing rates of autism. https://trib.al/6VqtCgQ

FDA commissioner Robert Califf has an urgent warning on #GenerativeAI: Clinicians around the country told him the technology’s adoption in their hospitals and clinics was being driven by financial considerations — not patient care. The statement was prelude to a two-day meeting during which one of the world’s most influential regulatory bodies sought to get its arms around one of the world’s most powerful, and unpredictable, technologies. Generative AI poses unique challenges to the FDA's regulatory process from initial evaluation and review, to post market monitoring. Here's what the agency discussed: https://trib.al/kc7sF4j

Rena Barrow has two sons with #cysticfibrosis, born 20 years apart — but they faced the same terrible delay in diagnosis. "The health care system is ill-equipped to recognize and treat cystic fibrosis in non-white patients," she writes in First Opinion. https://trib.al/uzFpewU

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a vocal critic of the pharmaceutical industry. He’s said it’s corrupted U.S. health agencies and has attacked products from vaccines to obesity medications. But #pharma executives speaking at the #JefferiesHealthcare Conference mostly shrugged off his potential impact projecting a 'business as usual' approach. https://trib.al/9TBVpBg