Alexander Bois-Spinelli
and
Alexa Lee
here hoping y’all are having a wonderful week! Before we head into your health and biopharma news crash course, a reminder that it’s time to start voting in your favorite bracket-style competition. That’s right, STAT Madness — our annual contest to find the best innovation in science and medicine — is back! Cast your vote before this round closes. ??
Now, here are the biggest stories from STAT this week, covering everything from new potential leadership of federal health agencies to concerns about bird flu:
- "Wrong," "misleading," and "reasonable": How Jay Bhattacharya became, for some, the least bad option to run NIH. Additionally, the most telling signal from Jay Bhattacharya’s confirmation hearing as nominee to direct the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday lay in what he would not say, Eric Boodman writes.
- The numbers that tell a scary story about the state of biotech. Plus: The industry is in an even darker place
- A judge issues a preliminary injunction blocking Trump cuts to NIH research overhead payments. It's a decision that suggests plaintiffs seeking to overturn the sweeping policy change are likely to eventually succeed.
- The NIH terminates ongoing grants for LGBTQ+ research. Scientists worry they will have to lay off staff, but vow to find a way to continue their work.
- Medicare and Medicaid agency faces compromised functions and disruption from Trump’s firings.?
- "Simply good science": Women’s health research reveals clues to aging and Alzheimer’s. Female sex is one of the strongest risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
- As RFK Jr. delivers his message on measles, public health experts hear a familiar tune. In an outbreak that has already claimed one life, the HHS secretary's rhetoric wasn't what a number of public health officials STAT spoke to were hoping to read.
- An HHS review of a vaccine contract sparks worries about preparedness for a potential bird flu pandemic. "If we don’t have this additional option … all of our eggs are basically in one basket of egg-produced vaccines,” said one virologist and former FDA official.
- At his Senate confirmation hearing, Makary nods to MAHA’s goals but says little about basic FDA policies. The Johns Hopkins pancreatic surgeon is expected to easily secure Senate confirmation.
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