418: Remembering STAT’s Helen Branswell

On this week’s episode of "The Readout LOUD": the failure of two closely followed heart disease drugs and how these setbacks may impact the future of cardiovascular drug research. Plus, drug safety concerns weigh on some of the biggest companies in the sector.  For years, it was widely believed that a deeper understanding of genetics was going to speed the development of newer and better medicines for patients with heart disease. But then came this year’s American Heart Association meeting, which was dominated by presentations of clinical trials that showed no benefit whatsoever for two drugs long thought to be genetically validated.  Joining us to help sort out this cardiovascular conundrum and what it might portend for the future of drug research is our colleague and senior medical writer Matthew Herper. We also chat about drug safety concerns weighing on Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Novartis, and Alnylam’s stock price tumbling on growth concerns.

How will the midterm results affect drug pricing policy? What is the fate of the Food and Drug Administration? And why are women traveling to fertility clinics abroad? On this week's episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT's biotech podcast, we bring on our Washington correspondent Daniel Payne to chat about the massive midterm victory for Democrats and what it means for health and medicine. We also bring on our colleague Megan Molteni to discuss her investigation into a network of clinics that have advertised fertility success with a questionable and expensive genetic procedure.

What is Adam doing in Spain? How did doctors react to detailed data on Merck and Moderna's mRNA cancer vaccine? And what are the next big advances in oncology? On this week's episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT's biotech podcast, we bring on our colleague Andrew Joseph to discuss the latest cancer data presented at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology. We also make an announcement about the podcast.

Helen Branswell was a renowned infectious disease reporter who earned the respect and admiration of experts and public health officials with her authoritative, prescient reporting on the flu, polio, Ebola and the Covid-19 pandemic. This week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD” is dedicated to Helen, who died last week due to complications of cancer. We speak with her colleagues at STAT, family and public health leaders about her work and her legacy.

Longevity medicine is now estimated to be a multitrillion dollar industry. But what are people paying for, and does it work? On this week's episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT's biotech podcast, we bring on STAT reporter Sarah Todd to discuss the booming industry of longevity health and her visit to one of the many longevity clinics popping up in major hospitals across the country.

How has the National Institutes of Health been spending its budget? Why are biotech investors feeling gloomy? And what is the most quintessential Boston movie? We discuss all that and more on this week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. We bring on STAT reporter Anil Oza and Heather Pierce, senior director of science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, to discuss the how the NIH distributed its money in the latest funding cycle and the effects on U.S. biomedical research. We also chat about the shuttering of a CRISPR CAR-T biotech, the Nobel Prize in medicine, and biotech investors’ current mood.

On this week’s episode of "The Readout LOUD": Why have so many Americans lost trust in science? And how have our policy leaders fueled that mistrust? We speak to STAT’s new trust-in-science reporter Nicholas Florko about the impact of Americans’ growing skepticism of science.  Your co-hosts also chat about a clinical update from UniQure on its gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, a juicy lawsuit filed by the gene-editing company Beam Therapeutics against a Chinese competitor, and a shift in the way pharma companies like Novo and Eli Lilly are talking about their GLP-1 products.

"The Readout LOUD" is going international this week. STAT's Jason Mast joins the podcast from Shanghai, where he's digging into what the rise of Chinese drug development means for the biotech industry. The hosts also speak to colleague Margaret Manto about Heidi Overton, the president's pick to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Will the new nominee bring some needed stability or controversy to the troubled agency? For more on Overton and her views on China, go here; to read about the ITM and Telix merger, go here; you can find the latest news on osteoporosis here.

International researchers got a reprieve in the courts this week. But many are still considering leaving the states for opportunities elsewhere. What does that mean for the future of American medical research? We discuss that, plus the latest news in the life sciences, on this week's episode of "The Readout LOUD." STAT reporter Jonathan Wosen and Fanta Aw, the executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, join the podcast to discuss a recent court decision around foreign visas for students. We also discuss the Definium's psychedelics data and what it means for that field as a whole. Be sure to sign up for “The Readout LOUD” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On this week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD”: The pharma industry invested billions of dollars to develop drugs heralded as the next era in the treatment of heart disease — but why did they fail? And what does this mean for the development of new heart medicines moving forward? Cardiologist and biotech entrepreneur Ethan Weiss joins us to discuss the surprising failures and long-term implications of two large clinical trials involving drugs developed from Novo Nordisk and Novartis, respectively. Plus, we have a recap of biotech news we missed while on hiatus, including a spurt of FDA drug approvals and the next big thing in cancer treatment from Merck and Moderna.