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And so, another working week will soon come to a close. Not a moment too soon, yes? This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda is still taking shape, but we plan on promenading with the official mascots, catching up on our reading, and manicuring the Pharmalot campus. We also hope to hold still another listening party, where the rotation will likely feature this, this, this, this and this. And what about you? If the weather cooperates, the possibilities are endless — hiking, surfing, sunbathing, strolling, gazing at the stars in the sky. Maybe you want to try a new restaurant. You could also do something meaningful and reach out to someone special. Well, whatever you do, have a grand time. But be safe. Enjoy, and see you soon. …

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 10-to-3 to recommend use of an experimental Replimune treatment for advanced melanoma, STAT writes. The panel determined the company collected sufficient data to allow the FDA to review RP1, an engineered viral immunotherapy. What comes next could be seen by some as a signal of how the FDA, which is under new leadership, weighs potential benefits and risks for investigational drugs. RP1 was initially rejected last year and again this past April. Investors have interpreted the decision to hold an advisory committee meeting as a sign of new lenience.

The weight loss drug boom is beginning to show signs of a slowdown as employers and insurers pull back on coverage, signaling the market could be entering a more restrained phase after years of breakneck expansion, Bloomberg News says. In the past few months, growth in prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs for weight loss have moderated, according to Cigna chief executive officer Brian Evanko. The insurer’s pharmacy benefits manager has seen coverage declines and slower utilization growth compared to prior periods. About 6% of big employers dropped coverage for the drugs in 2026, according to a recent survey from consulting firm Mercer.

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Novo Nordisk said Friday that its investigational anti-inflammatory drug did not reduce the risk of major heart events in a pivotal trial, raising questions about the increasingly popular approach of targeting inflammation to prevent cardiovascular complications.

In a Phase 3 study that enrolled over 6,300 people with heart disease, kidney disease, and inflammation, the drug, ziltivekimab, did lower markers of inflammation, Novo said. However, that did not translate into a reduction in risk of major complications, including cardiovascular-related death, heart attack, or stroke.

Novo shares were down about 7% Friday.

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Nine years ago in these pages, we — columnists for STAT at the time — praised the American Diabetes Association for standing up to a researcher in Brazil who had sued the group in U.S. federal court for issuing expressions of concern on four of his published articles. We even named the ADA the inaugural winner of our Doing the Right Thing award. 

Times certainly have changed, and the ADA is no longer what we’d call a profile in courage. The nation’s leading diabetes group now finds itself mired in a self-made mess involving its decision to oust a group of physicians from its annual meeting earlier this year. 

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When I was first diagnosed with limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), I was devastated to learn there wasn’t any treatment or cure. For those of us living with progressive diseases, time is not neutral. Every month a promising therapy is delayed, we will have irreversible loss of muscle function.

Rare disease drug development is in the midst of an extraordinary era of scientific innovation. Researchers are advancing gene therapies and targeted treatments unimaginable just a decade ago. The Food and Drug Administration has opportunities today with new leadership to modernize, including the utilization of innovative trial designs and tools so the United States continues to lead the world in rare disease drug development.

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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 Letter to the Editor here, or find the submission form at the end of any First Opinion essay.

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SAN DIEGO — She first came to Park Boulevard for the money and the snacks. A friend told her there was a place they could go with free fruit gummies, granola bars, and rice crispy treats — and she could make $20 if she answered some survey questions. It sounded like a dream. GB had been spending her nights crinkling through garbage bags for bottles and cans. Aluminum got $1.66 per pound; to make $20, she had to collect hundreds of empties. As far as she understood, on Park Boulevard, all she had to do was show up. One morning in May, she and her friend walked over from the tent city where they lived.

The place was a research office: sterile, with frosted glass. Sure enough, there was good, strong coffee and a little basket of snacks. She was surprised, though, when the researcher who’d been interviewing her asked if he could draw her blood. She was 47. She’d been using meth since 2021, but she was terrified of needles. She snorted her speed, never did heroin, never injected anything at all. She thought about saying she needed the bathroom and sneaking off. But she liked Carlos Vera, the guy who was asking. He was gentle, and talked to her like a real human being, unlike so many people, who treated her like a bug, like something dirty to be rid of. 

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A group of outside experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted in favor of Replimune’s experimental treatment for advanced melanoma.

In a 10-3 vote, the advisers determined that the biotech company has collected sufficient data to allow the FDA to review RP1, an engineered viral immunotherapy for melanoma. The agency tends to follow the recommendations of its expert panels but is not bound by them.

What comes next could be seen by some as a signal of how the FDA, under new leadership, weighs potential benefits and risks when it comes to investigational drugs. RP1 was rejected in April, under former FDA leaders Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad. Investors have interpreted the FDA’s decision to hold an advisory committee meeting about the drug as a sign of new lenience. But STAT has reported that earlier resistance to RP1 was based on the views of the FDA’s career staff, not leadership. 

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Is the Food and Drug Administration taking inconsistent approaches to Duchenne muscular dystrophy drugs? How will a new batch of drug executives shake up their companies? And why is Adam talking to a recruiter?

We discuss all that and more on this week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast.

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Demand for the mental health unit’s insurance offering accelerated faster than expected, eating into its cash pay business. The quarter marked an “unfortunate setback” for BetterHelp, one analyst said.

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Good morning. Earlier this week, STAT’s Anil Oza went to our regular sandwich place to get lunch, and the folks working asked him where his friend was. That’s me! I had packed my own lunch — but I might never do that again, now that I know I’m known.

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Dr. Jaewon Ryu said he was stepping down to spend more time with his family. Risant is bringing out Dale Maxwell, a retired hospital executive, to serve as interim leader while it searches for a replacement.

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BOSTON — In an order issued Thursday, a federal judge denied 26 states’ request to postpone the implementation of Medicaid work requirements announced in June.

The case seeks to alter a piece of one of President Trump’s biggest legislative priorities. The suit is focused on the implementation of a work requirement for people who receive Medicaid, the details of which were issued in June with the target of implementing the changes by Jan. 1. But states must also communicate with Medicaid recipients by Aug. 31 regarding how the changes may affect those enrollees.

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WASHINGTON — The Senate health committee approved two Trump administration nominees for key health roles Thursday, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a pandemic preparedness leader, after an earlier vote was delayed. 

The vote on Erica Schwartz for CDC director was approved by all Republicans and by Tim Kaine (D-Va.), with other Democrats opposed. Sean Kaufman won support from all Republicans to be assistant secretary for preparedness and response, and all Democrats were opposed.

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The war with Iran has driven oil prices up, prompting concern that the supply of some medicines will be disrupted. But there is another consideration. In a new report, Unitaid emphasized that essential medicines are exposed to oil price volatility. Specifically, the global health agency examined the effect rising oil prices could have on one HIV medication and found that manufacturing costs could rise by 15% if oil reaches $120 barrel, and 85% of those higher costs are driven by petrochemical ingredients. To push back, Julien Pouille, who leads the climate and health strategic team and is lead author of the report, argues that lessening reliance on petrochemical products would help mitigate rising medicine costs and improve the climate. This is an edited version of our conversation.

So what prompted this exploration?

As part of our access strategy, we have a climate and health strategy that looks into ways in which basically we can just advance product knowledge that’s good for health, but also good for climate.… And of course, in the context of the Middle East crisis… we thought it was very timely to look into, specifically, the relationship between medicine prices and oil prices, because we were anticipating that that could potentially lead to some risks in terms of access for people and the population we work for.

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This story, published in partnership with The Examination, is part of an investigative collaboration involving The Examination, The Bristol Cable, Daraj, Investico, Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, and the Toronto Star.

On a winter morning in a Long Island town about two hours east of New York City’s skyscrapers, a Dutch researcher told local officials that their concerns about mixing heavily caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol were overblown.

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Starting next week, Nebraskans on Medicaid will be at risk of losing their health coverage unless the state can verify that they work, volunteer, or attend school for 80 hours per month. Come January, millions of other low-income Americans will face the same cliff. 

While some working-age people are exempt, including those with young children and those deemed “medically frail,” new rules about who can opt out have led to widespread confusion. For patients with complex medical conditions, the looming requirements may create another barrier to health.

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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 Letter to the Editor here, or find the submission form at the end of any First Opinion essay.

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When I met Tesfaye at Boru Meda General Hospital, he vaguely remembered the thorn. He was 15 when it pricked his foot, out in the fields somewhere in Mekdela, in north-central Ethiopia. He had noticed it in passing, then forgot about it.

Seventeen years later, that prick had severely damaged his foot, destroying its bones.

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Michigan reported 10,077 cyclosporiasis cases Wednesday as a nationwide food-safety investigation widened and consumer fears began cutting restaurant visits and fresh-lettuce purchases.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services added 397 cases from Tuesday’s count. State officials have reported 160 hospitalizations and no deaths, according to the latest available figures.

Federal investigators have linked part of the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico and served at Taco Bell restaurants. Yet the scale of the illness remains larger than the cases tied directly to that product, leaving health authorities searching for additional sources.

That distinction matters for consumers. The Food and Drug Administration’s confirmed Taco Bell-related outbreak involved 1,947 illnesses across nine states as of its July 24 update, while Michigan’s broader count includes confirmed, probable and suspected cases that may involve other exposures.

Across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received reports of 6,707 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases. Health authorities are also reviewing more than 11,500 additional cases across 45 states that have not been laboratory confirmed or still require investigation.

The outbreak is now affecting far more than the people who became sick.

Fresh-lettuce unit sales fell 9% during the week ended July 18 compared with the prior week and were down 19% from two weeks earlier, according to NielsenIQ data reported Wednesday.

Restaurant traffic has also weakened. Visits to Taco Bell fell 20.8% on July 23 compared with the average Thursday during the first half of the year, while traffic also declined at Chopt, Panera Bread and Chipotle.

Those declines show how uncertainty can spread across an entire food category even when only specific products have been recalled. Growers and restaurants selling lettuce from unaffected regions are now facing reduced demand because customers cannot easily distinguish recalled products from produce that remains safe.

Taylor Farms voluntarily removed all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market on July 17. The recall included certain Marketside iceberg salad and shredded-lettuce products sold at select Walmart stores, along with food-service products distributed to restaurants and other commercial customers.

Recalled food-service lettuce was distributed in at least 27 states, including New Jersey. Retail Marketside products were sold in a smaller group of states that did not include New Jersey or New York, according to the FDA’s published distribution list.

Taco Bell said it stopped using lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico on July 17.

FDA officials continue to advise consumers, restaurants and retailers not to eat recalled lettuce. Anyone who still has an affected product should discard it or return it for a refund, then clean containers and surfaces that may have touched the lettuce.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that can spread when people consume food or water contaminated with fecal matter. Unlike some foodborne illnesses, it generally does not spread directly from one person to another.

Symptoms commonly include frequent watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, fatigue, appetite loss and weight loss. Illness can continue for weeks and may appear to improve before returning.

Consumers experiencing symptoms should contact a healthcare provider, particularly if they ate shredded iceberg lettuce during the two weeks before becoming sick. People with weakened immune systems may face more severe or prolonged illness.

Washing produce remains an important general food-safety practice, but it may not completely remove Cyclospora from contaminated fruits or vegetables. The more immediate protection is avoiding products specifically listed in the recall.

Case numbers may continue climbing even after recalled lettuce has disappeared from shelves. Federal officials said it can take as long as six weeks to determine whether a reported illness belongs to the outbreak because of delays involving symptoms, medical testing and case reporting.

For restaurants, grocery stores and produce companies, the next risk is whether investigators identify additional foods, suppliers or distribution channels. Until that picture becomes clearer, consumer hesitation is likely to remain a financial problem across the fresh-produce business—not only for the companies directly connected to the recall.

JBizNews Desk | Detroit

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Young life scientists have been increasingly abandoning academia, a seismic shift that has fueled calls for rethinking graduate education. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced that it’s funding a pilot program to test a new strategy: Giving Ph.D. students industry experience — and dollars — as part of their training.

The program is creating four-year Ph.D. programs that are jointly bankrolled by universities and industry partners, with additional support from the National Science Foundation. During their Ph.D. studies, participants will spend at least one year conducting research at a company site.

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Global pharmaceutical companies are tightening operations while continuing to invest aggressively in new drug development, signaling that the industry’s next phase will be driven by efficiency rather than reduced research spending.

GlaxoSmithKline on Tuesday announced a restructuring program valued at approximately $2.5 billion, designed to simplify operations, lower costs and accelerate the development of new medicines. At the same time, the company reaffirmed its long-term financial outlook, indicating that management expects the savings to be reinvested into higher-priority research programs rather than achieved through broad reductions in innovation.

The announcement came alongside stronger-than-expected results from healthcare technology company IQVIA, which raised its full-year revenue and earnings outlook after reporting continued growth in demand for clinical research, healthcare analytics and pharmaceutical consulting services. New bookings within the company’s research division climbed sharply, reflecting renewed confidence among drug manufacturers investing in future treatments.

Together, the announcements highlight a broader trend developing across the pharmaceutical industry. Companies are becoming more disciplined with administrative spending while protecting the investments needed to replenish future product pipelines as blockbuster drugs lose patent protection over the coming years.

Competition is also intensifying. Biotechnology firms in the United States, Europe and China continue advancing new therapies in oncology, immunology, obesity and rare diseases, forcing larger pharmaceutical companies to move faster through clinical development while maintaining strict cost controls.

For businesses serving the healthcare industry, the shift creates opportunities across clinical research, laboratory services, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and healthcare technology. Companies capable of helping pharmaceutical manufacturers shorten development timelines or improve research productivity are expected to benefit from continued industry investment.

Investors increasingly recognize that success in pharmaceuticals will depend not only on discovering breakthrough medicines but also on efficiently bringing those treatments to market. Companies able to reduce operating costs while maintaining strong research pipelines may be better positioned to generate sustainable long-term growth.

With healthcare demand continuing to rise worldwide and competition for innovative therapies accelerating, the pharmaceutical industry appears focused on doing more with every research dollar rather than spending less overall.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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“Virtually everyone” losing Affordable Care Act coverage is going insured, one UHS executive said. The hospital operator expects to lose $10 million more than expected as a result this year.

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The CMS said the program, which went into effect last year to stabilize Part D premiums and enrollment, isn’t needed anymore. One researcher said some enrollees could see higher premium increases in 2027 as a result.

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A group of outside experts convened Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration concluded clinical data for a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy from Capricor Therapeutics did not provide “substantial evidence” of efficacy.  

The vote was 9-3, sending to the FDA a recommendation that the Capricor treatment, called deramiocel, should not be approved. 

The FDA is not required to adhere to the expert panel’s stance, but it typically does. The agency review is still underway with a decision expected by Aug. 22. 

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For decades, efforts to develop non-opioid pain drugs were marked by failure. But what was once a graveyard of drug discovery is quickly turning into a race for a multibillion-dollar market, with Latigo Biotherapeutics publishing positive data on Wednesday for a therapy meant to rival a Vertex medicine already on the market.

The startup’s Phase 2 trial enrolled 343 patients who’d gotten tummy tuck surgery; they were randomized to receive a high or low dose of Latigo’s experimental pill, a placebo, or a combination of acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone. Those given either dose of Latigo’s oral drug, LTG-001, showed statistically significant pain relief compared to placebo after 48 hours. And while participants in all groups had the option to use the opioid oxycodone if they needed additional pain management, those on a high dose of Latigo’s therapy were significantly less likely to do so than participants on placebo.

The drug was generally safe and well tolerated, with higher overall adverse event rates in the placebo group than in either treatment group. Some adverse events, however, were more common in the treatment groups: 7% of those taking a high dose of LTG-001 had a fever, compared with 2% of people on placebo, and 6% experienced lightheadedness, compared with 1% of the placebo group. 

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On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission sued direct-to-consumer telehealth company Hims & Hers, continuing a pattern of action against digital health companies’ business practices and use of consumer health data. The FTC, along with Utah and California, alleged that Hims deceived consumers in several ways when they purchased clinical care and medications through the site. 

The telehealth company misled consumers about sharing their sensitive health information with third parties including Meta and Snap, the suit claims. It also alleges that Hims isn’t clear that when consumers fill out a medical history, they are signing up for a subscription that continually renews and bills them for medication. Patients are given “virtually no opportunity to review the provider’s recommended treatment, much less consent to it,” the lawsuit alleges, while the site also makes it difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions. 

Hims responded to the suit in a statement on the social media platform X. “This lawsuit disregards substantial evidence we provided the FTC during its nearly three-year investigation, ignores established state laws and industry standards in telehealth, and contorts the law to try to manufacture claims,” reads the statement. “This is not enforcement grounded in consumer protection; it is an effort to generate headlines at our expense. We are confident in our position and will vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless claims.” 

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Included is hoping that Firefly’s offerings will help set it apart in a crowded employee benefits space, especially as employers become increasingly open to alternative health plan arrangements.

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Many employers are considering the coverage arrangements, but confidence in the ACA marketplaces — including potentially high costs for workers — are making them hesitant to move forward, according to a survey.

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will end subsidies for private Medicare drug plans, likely resulting in higher premiums for some older adults right before the midterm elections.

Democrats were already campaigning on the approximately $1 trillion in health care cuts in Republicans’ tax bill from last summer. They immediately seized on the decision to end drug plan subsidies as another opportunity to attack Republicans on affordability. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the decision  “Heartless, cruel, and completely by choice.”

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I saw “The Odyssey” during its opening weekend. Ever since then, I have been questioning whether I’m illiterate or whether Christopher Nolan is a poor storyteller. This London Review of Books evaluation of the film, written by the woman whose translation of “The Odyssey” Nolan apparently read, has freed me from my wondering. (h/t to my colleague Matthew Herper)

Hot takes on Homer’s epic, or hot tips about Epic Systems: aiprognosis@statnews.com

Benchmark battle bots

You might recall that in mid-June, there was a Nature Medicine study that pitted clinical AI systems OpenEvidence and UpToDate Expert AI against general LLMs. It set off a reaction in the clinical AI world like no other paper has. “The results rang out like a gunshot,” as STAT health tech correspondent Katie Palmer describes it.

The controversy surrounding the study, and everything that came after, exemplifies the problems I have with benchmarks.

Katie summed it up well when I talked to her yesterday: “The way that benchmarks have been talked about generally, and specifically in clinical AI, tends to summarize them into the headlines,” she said. “Every study needs a headline and every story needs a headline, but as we both know, and as I think most people in the industry know, an individual benchmark doesn’t mean much.”

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Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week. Congratulations on making it this far, and remember there are only a few more days until the weekend arrives. So keep plugging away. After all, what are the alternatives? While you ponder the not-so-appetizing possibilities, we invite you to join us for a needed cuppa stimulation. Our choice today is green tea with ginger. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you on your way. We hope you conquer the world and have a wonderful day. And as always, please do stay in touch. …

When one of Rhode Island’s most-wanted fugitives was discovered last week to have been secretly working under an alias in the biotech industry, the reaction among many was shock, STAT says. How did he evade scrutiny for two decades? And how did the companies that hired him — at least one biotech on a full-time basis and at least two large drugmakers on a contractual basis — not vet him more thoroughly? But to an industry recruiter who spoke with Richard Graydon — the alias used by Ronald Fischer, a former doctor who was convicted of sexual assault and had spent two decades on the run — it wasn’t all that surprising. His stellar academic credentials, board certification, and years of experience leading teams that successfully developed cancer drugs made him an ideal candidate for top jobs. Much of his CV appears to have been fabricated, but it checked the right boxes.

A New Hampshire hospital is challenging a new Eli Lilly policy that requires certain hospitals to submit claims data when dispensing the company’s drugs under the federal 340B drug discount program, Bloomberg Law writes. The lawsuit filed by Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital alleges Lilly’s requirement imposes an illegal policy with “non-negotiable terms” and “retaliatory pricing penalties in order to extract commercially valuable data.” The hospital said it refused to comply with the company’s demands, which were announced in February. Earlier this month, Lilly began terminating discounts to dozens of hospitals.

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At a highly anticipated Senate hearing, Anthony Fauci on Wednesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions about the Covid-19 pandemic and its origins, saying he was doing so on the advice of his attorneys.

The former U.S. health official, who achieved rock star status for a time due to his central role in charting the U.S. response to the pandemic, had been subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a panel headed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who had made no secret of his desire to see Fauci behind bars. Among other allegations, Paul has accused Fauci of covering up the origins of the virus that causes Covid — which the senator believes was caused by a lab leak in China — and lying to Congress.

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Good morning. Might I suggest you order yourself a delicious sandwich for lunch today and join Office Hours with Isa Cueto and Lev Facher, who will be discussing alcohol consumption as a public health crisis, the industry’s lobbying, and potential policy solutions. 1 p.m. EDT. Questions encouraged! 

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Health insurers are confronting a new financial reality as Medicaid enrollment declines and more Americans leave Affordable Care Act marketplace plans after enhanced federal subsidies expired, adding pressure to an industry already grappling with rising medical costs.

Centene Corp. highlighted the trend in its latest earnings update, saying Medicaid membership continues to fall as states complete post-pandemic eligibility reviews. At the same time, insurers are seeing a healthier portion of the insured population leave government-supported plans, leaving behind members who generally require more frequent and costly medical care.

Those changes are occurring just as enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies introduced during the pandemic have expired for many households. Without the larger federal assistance, some consumers are finding monthly premiums increasingly difficult to afford, leading them to drop coverage or seek less comprehensive plans.

For insurers, the shift creates a difficult balancing act. Fewer members generally mean lower premium revenue, while a sicker remaining population increases claims expenses. Companies must decide whether to adjust pricing, reduce plan offerings or absorb higher costs while remaining competitive during future enrollment periods.

Healthcare providers could also feel the effects. Hospitals and physician groups often face greater financial pressure when uninsured patients delay treatment until conditions worsen, increasing uncompensated care and emergency-room utilization.

Businesses should also pay attention. Employers that provide health insurance may continue to see upward pressure on benefit costs as insurers attempt to offset higher medical expenses. Companies evaluating employee healthcare plans for 2027 could face more difficult negotiations over premiums, deductibles and provider networks.

Investors are watching whether the industry’s cost pressures are temporary or the beginning of a longer structural shift. With Medicaid eligibility reviews largely complete and subsidy policy remaining uncertain, insurers are expected to focus increasingly on pricing discipline, operational efficiency and higher-margin business lines.

The next major test will come during the upcoming open-enrollment season, when insurers reveal pricing decisions that will provide a clearer picture of how they expect healthcare costs to evolve over the next year.

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Hundreds of thousands of U.S. doctors use clinical large language models, pitched by companies like OpenEvidence, Doximity, and UpToDate as an antidote to the dangers of hallucination-prone generalist models from Big Tech. Yet few studies have pitted them against each other — and this summer brought a high-profile head-to-head. 

Researchers from NYU Langone Health had tested general and clinical models, including OpenEvidence and UpToDate Expert AI, on three sets of clinical questions. The findings, published in Nature Medicine in June: The clinical AI performed worse than the general models. 

The results rang out like a gunshot. “I’ve never seen a single paper trigger the kind of reactions this one has in the health AI community,” wrote Kaiser Permanente’s vice president of AI and emerging technologies on LinkedIn. The paper’s findings, like all science, are subject to interpretation and debate — but many online reactions treated them more like a clear victory for general frontier models.

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When one of Rhode Island’s most-wanted fugitives was discovered last week to have been secretly working under an alias in the biotech industry, the reaction among many was shock. How did he evade scrutiny for two decades? And how did the companies that hired him — at least one biotech on a full-time basis and at least two large pharmaceutical companies on a contractual basis — not vet him more thoroughly?

But to an industry recruiter who spoke with Richard Graydon — the alias used by Ronald Fischer, a former doctor who was convicted of sexual assault and who had spent two decades on the run — it wasn’t altogether surprising. 

Graydon’s stellar academic credentials, board certification, and years of experience leading teams that successfully developed cancer drugs made him an ideal candidate for top jobs at biotech and pharma companies. Much of his CV appears to have been fabricated, according to a STAT review, but it checked the right boxes.

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Biotechnology is rapidly becoming a pillar of national power. The nation that can discover, test, and deploy new therapies most efficiently will not only improve the health of its citizens but also shape global standards, attract investment, strengthen military readiness, and dominate one of the most important industries of the past century.

China understands this reality. Beijing has made biotechnology a strategic priority and is investing aggressively in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, advanced biomanufacturing, gene therapies, and precision medicine.

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The nurses had warned me not to expect much. They hadn’t seen her smile in weeks, they said, sounding as though they’d already given up.

Her room was undecorated and gray, crowded with machines whose chorus of irritating beeping never ceased. I paused at the entrance, horrified by the numerous plastic tubes penetrating her tiny abdomen. My eyes moved from her stomach to her hands, clenched around a stuffed unicorn, her sole companion on a Friday night.

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The expulsion of five diabetes experts from the American Diabetes Association meeting last month continues to reverberate, with more than 200 members now calling for two ADA leaders to resign. In response, the ADA delivered its own message Tuesday, expressing appreciation for members’ patience while a report is prepared. 

The resignation demand, sent last week in an open letter to the ADA board of directors, calls for the removal of CEO Charles Henderson and chief scientific and medical officer Rita Kalyani. It also urges “an independent investigation into the events of the 2026 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, a full apology to the five colleagues removed from the meeting, and the restoration of editorial independence at Diabetes Care,” an ADA scientific journal.

“It has now been more than 45 days since the incident at the 2026 Scientific Sessions, and the ADA Board of Directors has still taken no meaningful action to hold leadership accountable, issue a genuine apology, or restore trust with the membership,” the open letter said. “The ADA was founded by physicians and scientists who understood that this organization’s strength flows from the community it serves — not from the administrators who happen to run it. That community is now telling its Board, in the clearest terms available, that the current path is unsustainable. We ask that they change the organization now.”

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WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, and particularly Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have long been critical of the government’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic — which began during the first Trump administration — and have sought to pin blame on those they believe played some role in the virus’s outbreak and what they describe as a subsequent coverup of the pandemic’s origins. 

On Wednesday, they will again get another chance to explore the past when Anthony Fauci, the nation’s former top infectious disease expert, testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee following a subpoena issued by Paul.

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For nearly half a century, the federal government encouraged international students and scholars to study in the U.S. by allowing them to stay for the duration of their training — regardless of how many years it took. The Trump administration now plans to tear up that long-standing policy, fueling concerns in the research community that the U.S. could lose out on talented foreign scientists. 

In mid-July, the Department of Homeland Security announced that future international students and postdoctoral researchers will be allowed to stay in the U.S. for no more than four years on nonimmigrant visas unless they apply for and receive an extension from DHS. Those already in the U.S. won’t need an extension if their training is set to end before September 2030, even if they’ve already been in the country for more than four years.

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Fauci subpoenaed to testify before Senate panel

Anthony Fauci is scheduled to testify again tomorrow before Congress, this time at the Senate homeland security committee.

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LONDON — Half a year into taking over the job, GSK CEO Luke Miels on Tuesday laid out his plans to turn the U.K. pharma giant into a more agile company with years of growth ahead. 

A key step, Miels said, will be a three-year campaign to generate 1.9 billion pounds (about $2.5 billion) in annual savings by 2029, much of which will be reinvested to advance the company’s late-stage pipeline. The company also now plans to start at least 20 Phase 3 trials this year, up from the 10 that it had disclosed at the beginning of 2026. 

“We are step-by-step building a set of potential best-in-class products across our core therapy areas,” Miels said, a list that includes some newer target areas — like oncology and liver disease — as well as longtime GSK focuses like vaccines and HIV. Miels would not say Tuesday how many jobs would be cut under the savings drive. 

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Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have reiterated concerns that Replimune does not have adequate data to support an approval of its investigational skin cancer treatment, as the biotech tries for the third time to seek clearance for its highly controversial drug.

In briefing documents released Tuesday ahead of a meeting of FDA advisers later this week, the agency took issue with the single-arm trial the biotech relies on, in which patients who have already tried a PD1-inhibitor took Replimune’s drug, called RP1, in combination with the PD1-inhibitor Opdivo. The agency argued the study is not enough to properly evaluate the efficacy of the drug itself and whether the treatment, which is injected locally, has systemic benefits.

Replimune counters in its own briefing document that “it is not feasible or ethical” to conduct a study that randomly assigns its drug or placebo on top of PD-1 inhibitors in patients whose cancer has stopped responding to PD-1s, since “there is no evidence that continued anti-PD-1 monotherapy provides any level of clinical benefit” to those patients.

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You’re reading the web edition of STAT’s Health Tech newsletter, our guide to how technology is transforming the life sciences. Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.

Good morning health tech readers!

Today, the latest on tech company pledges to CMS. Plus: ChatGPT Health is now generally available and Whoop’s new CMO answers my questions.

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