Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Jul 1

Follow me on X. This site has become unbearable.

Reposted by Adam Feuerstein✡️

Jason Ukman @jasonukman.bsky.social · Mar 31

So @statnews.com has had a LOT of coverage of the ouster of the FDA's Peter Marks.

The news:
statnews.com/2025/03/28/f...

Analysis from @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social
statnews.com/2025/03/30/f...

Analysis from @matthewherper.bsky.social
statnews.com/2025/03/31/r...

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Mar 30

FDA’s ‘key man’ Peter Marks is out. Biotech investors will now deal with the consequences www.statnews.com/2025/03/30/f...

FDA’s ‘key man’ Peter Marks is out. Biotech investors will now deal with the consequences

Peter Marks’ ouster comes at a time when the sector is already suffering through a years-long public markets slump.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Mar 14

RFK Jr. misleads, deceives or simply lies when he claims the measles vaccine "routinely" causes deaths. IT DOES NOT.
@matthewherper.bsky.social lays out the facts.

www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/r...

RFK Jr. says measles vaccine routinely causes deaths. That's not true

RFK Jr.'s claims on the safety of vaccine safety aren't backed by the data.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Mar 6

The Senate confirmation hearing for FDA Commissioner nominee Marty Makary is scheduled to start at 10 am ET.

STAT's live blog is here for those who want to check in during the day:

www.statnews.com/2025/03/06/m...

Live updates: Marty Makary, Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner, testifies before Senate panel

Marty Makary, Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner, testifies before a Senate panel this morning. Follow STAT's live updates.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 27

How to eliminate biotech zombies: Buy them www.statnews.com/2025/02/27/b...

How to eliminate biotech zombies: Buy them

Why one health care investor buys “zombie” biotechs to shut them down.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 24

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla inflicts injury on his company — and all of pharma

The hiring of a former top FDA official amplifies ‘revolving door’ criticism at the worst possible time

www.statnews.com/2025/02/24/p...

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla inflicts injury on his company — and all of pharma

The hiring of a former top FDA official amplifies "revolving door" criticism at the worst possible time, STAT's Adam Feuerstein writes.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 23

Trump administration rehires some FDA employees it fired www.statnews.com/2025/02/23/f... via @lizzylawrence.bsky.social

Trump administration rehires some FDA employees it fired

The Trump administration has started quietly rehiring some FDA employees just days after it fired them.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 22

Sometimes as a journalist you just need to admit that you got beat.

Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 20

Thanks, snowflake.

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 20

New obesity treatments have been transformational, but the fixation on more weight loss may not be in patients' best interests, doctors say.

But rapid and extreme weight loss may lead to too much muscle loss, a weakened immune system, and other risks.

www.statnews.com/2025/02/20/t...

How much weight loss is too much? Pharma is pushing the limit with new obesity drugs

How much weight loss is too much? Pharma is pushing the limit with new obesity drugs.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 20

A race to the bottom — too much weight loss?
A new, must-read story from my colleague
@elaineywchen.bsky.social

Patients in trials of Eli Lilly's next-gen obesity drug think they're losing too much weight. One started skipping doses, another is making himself eat caloric foods.

Link below...

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 20

This week's Biotech Scorecard newsletter:

Why biotech’s future is threatened by zombies

(Not the movie kind, the money-wasting, space-sucking negative enterprise value kind!)

www.statnews.com/2025/02/20/w...

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 18

You absolutely must read this interview:

FDA’s former top food official says Trump firings are ‘dismantling’ the division

In candid interview, Jim Jones says moves will undercut RFK Jr.’s agenda

www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/f... via @matthewherper.bsky.social

FDA’s former top food official says Trump firings are ‘dismantling’ the division

The former head of the FDA's food division told STAT he resigned because cuts made by the Trump administration imperil the agenda set forth by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 18

Biogen $BIIB partners with Stoke Therapeutics $STOK on drug for severe epilepsy www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/b...

Biogen partners with Stoke Therapeutics on drug for severe epilepsy

Biogen and Stoke Therapeutics have signed a deal to co-develop and sell Stoke’s experimental drug for Dravet syndrome, outside the U.S.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 18

Duchenne gene therapy from Solid Biosciences $SLDB produces promising results in early study www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/s... via @jasonmast.bsky.social $RGRX $SRPT

Duchenne gene therapy from Solid Biosciences produces promising results in early study

Solid said that the first patients to receive its Duchenne gene therapy all produced high levels of the target protein, an early sign of promise

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 17

Drug inspectors, AI experts, maternal health workers: Trump’s health agency cuts are far-reaching

In interviews w/ STAT, those who were fired, along with officials who remain, argued the cuts would be deeply felt.

www.statnews.com/2025/02/17/t... via @helenbranswell.bsky.social

Drug inspectors, AI experts, maternal health workers: Trump’s health agency cuts are far-reaching

In interview after interview with STAT, those who were fired from federal health and science agencies, along with officials who remain, argued the cuts would be deeply felt.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 16

Trump administration lays off FDA employees www.statnews.com/2025/02/15/t... via @statnews.com

Trump administration lays off FDA employees

The cuts are part of a purge of 5,200 probationary workers across federal health agencies that started Friday.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 14

Remember the heroic Kate Winslet character in the movie Contagion? Well, they just fired the Kate Winslets...

CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health

www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t... via @helenbranswell.bsky.social

CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health

Members of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service were warned Friday that many of them were about to be fired

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 14

A reminder that I can be reached on Signal at stafaf.54

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 14

BREAKING: Trump administration to fire thousands at health agencies www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/f... via @statnews.com

Trump administration to fire thousands at health agencies

The Trump administration is set to eliminate thousands of federal health care jobs Friday, targeting employees across agencies who were hired in the past one to two years.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 14

If I came to you and said, “Michael, I’m really depressed. My life is terrible.” You wouldn’t tell me, “Oh, Adam, it’s all in your head. Get over it.”

This is about way more than investor psychology, feeling shitty bc stocks are tanking. There are real problems in biotech finance that need fixing.

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 14

Michael - Thanks, and I’m open to hearing possible fixes.

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 13

Biotech is in a dark place.

The market offers one beatdown after another. Sentiment is lousy and the bad mood is relentless, to the point where people are seriously wondering if a sector turnaround is ever possible.

Sorry, but it's just depressing out there...

www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/b...

Biotech is in a dark place

Biotech and drug stocks, collectively, are down an average of 16% over the past three months. The closely watched XBI index is down 19% in the same time period.

www.statnews.com

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Adam Feuerstein✡️ @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social · Feb 11

She's not alone.. The silence from biotech and pharma CEOs — $AMGN $LLY $REGN $GILD — is (to use a cliché) deafening.

Read the story here:

www.statnews.com/2025/02/11/n...

As outcry builds over Trump cuts to NIH payments, drugmakers are MIA

Drugmakers — major beneficiaries of NIH-backed university research — have been largely silence on the Trump administration's cuts to agency research payments.

www.statnews.com

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