Adam Feuerstein✡️

Follow me on X. This site has become unbearable.

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...

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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...

How to eliminate biotech zombies: Buy them Why one health care investor buys “zombie” biotechs to shut them down.

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

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.

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...

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

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

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

Thanks, snowflake.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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

On last night's earnings call, $VRTX CEO Reshma Kewalramani said nothing about the NIH, yet Vertex owes some of that $11B in cystic fibrosis drug sales to foundational biomedical research funded by NIH....

Two biotechs say they're using AI to conjure drugs from scratch. Their documents suggest otherwise A STAT examination shows how AI-powered biotechs like Absci and Generate Biomedicines routinely aggrandize their AI capabilities.

$ABSI and Generate Biomedicines say they’re using AI to conjure drugs from scratch. Documents, experts suggest otherwise

www.statnews.com/2025/02/10/a...

via @brittanytrang.bsky.social

Thank you!

The CRISPR companies are not OK Gene editing promised a revolution, but biotech layoffs, stock slumps, and industry struggles reveal a stark reality: CRISPR is hard to do profitably.

For several months, @jasonmast.bsky.social
embedded himself inside CRISPR world, interviewing scientists, company executives and analysts to get a clearer picture of why this once-brazen field has been humbled, and what can be done to turn it around.

Read:

www.statnews.com/2025/02/06/c...

Layoffs have hit nearly every CRISPR company — large and small. Stock prices have plunged. Pipelines have been pared back.

Remember Casgevy, the heralded "first CRISPR medicine?" Well, only a tiny handful of sickle cell patients have been treated with it...