Even for trans adults, care is hard to find: ‘I could not do it on my own’ State restrictions, Trump administration policies, and waning public support are further limiting adults' access to transgender care

A phenomenal story from @theresagaff.bsky.social about how access to gender-affirming care for adults, like with kids, is shrinking.

www.statnews.com/2026/04/20/t...

The race to catch KRAS, pancreatic cancer’s ‘greasy ball,’ and create the most promising drug in decades Daraxonrasib, a pancreatic cancer drug from Revolution Medicines, is showing unprecedented success. For patients like Leanna Stokes, survival time doubled.

The race to catch KRAS, pancreatic cancer’s ‘greasy ball,’ and create the most promising drug in decades

www.statnews.com/2026/04/19/d...

Barrera said her husband said the smell of human feces in the toilet caused a fellow detainee to vomit and, in turn, created a chain of people vomiting. She said her husband is asthmatic and has not received medication to treat his condition. The lack of medicine and the stress of the overcrowded holding cell has left him short of breath and teetering on the edge of an asthma attack, Barrera said. ICE did not immediately respond to questions on April 10 about the conditions of the Mesa or Phoenix facilities. After the publication of this article, Barrera told The Arizona Republic her husband was transferred to the ICE facility at San Luis Regional Detention Center at about midnight. The San Luis Regional Detention Center is in Southwestern Arizona and has the capacity to hold 700 people.

This is horrific. A U.S. citizen describes the facility in Arizona that her husband was brought to while he waited to be put on a deportation flight. Dozens of people were crammed into tiny cells, there was a "chain of people vomiting" from filthy toilets, no medical care, and only one meal per day.

Revolution Medicines touts ‘unprecedented’ data for pancreatic cancer pill In a trial, metastatic pancreatic cancer patients on the medicine lived twice as long as those on chemotherapy.

The experimental pancreatic cancer drug that Ben Sasse is taking just posted extraordinary results in a clinical trial. It's far from a cure, but any hopeful news in this notoriously deadly, intractable disease is good news.

Via @jasonmast.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2026/04/13/r...

5 years after lupus breakthrough, CAR-T is still surprising autoimmunity researchers CAR-T therapy is toting up more remissions in autoimmune disease, and generating a flood of experimentation and investment.

New: 5 years after lupus breakthrough, CAR-T is still surprising autoimmunity researchers.

Via @isabellacueto.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2026/04/09/a...

A decade ago, these drugs tore apart the FDA. Today, they might be some patients' best hope A mother's persistence helps revive an all-but-abandoned drug class and could aid her son and thousands of others with neuromuscular conditions.

Much of this work can be chalked up to one mom, who set out more than 20 years ago to cure her son and didn't stop amid innumerable setbacks. He is now 29, older than most people with DMD. He went on Avidity's drug two years ago. It has changed his life

www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/d...

For some boys on Avidity's drug, muscle damage appears to have halted altogether — a holy grail for DMD. It's targeted to just 6% of DMD patients (and won't easily be repeated for other patients). But Novartis bought the co for $12B, betting the same tech can change muscle medicine

Scientists have reinvented these molecules, known as exon-skippers, equipping them with antibodies and novel chemistry. Wave and Dyne will apply for new approvals this year for drugs that can treat around 20% of DMD patients. But the most striking data come from Avidity Biosciences.

A decade ago, these drugs tore apart the FDA. Today, they might be some patients' best hope A mother's persistence helps revive an all-but-abandoned drug class and could aid her son and thousands of others with neuromuscular conditions.

decade ago, a new class of Duchenne drugs sparked a civil war in the FDA. There were anecdotes, boys and parents in dire need, but little data

Today those drugs are back. For a small subset of patients, they have led to among the best results experts have seen

www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/d...

Much of this work can be chalked up to one mom, who set out more than 20 years ago to cure her son and didn't stop amid innumerable setbacks. He is now 29, older than most people with DMD. He went on Avidity's drug two years ago. It has changed his life
www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/d...

For some boys on Avidity's drug, muscle damage appears to have halted altogether — a holy grail for DMD. It's targeted to just 6% of DMD patients (and won't easily be repeated for other patients). But Novartis bought the co for $12B, betting the same tech can change muscle medicine

Scientists have reinvented these molecules, known as exon-skippers, equipping them with antibodies and novel chemistry. Wave and Dyne will apply for new approvals this year for drugs that can treat around 20% of DMD patients. But the most striking data come from Avidity Biosciences.

🚨 The Pentagon is now sending a Marine expeditionary unit — meaning thousands of marines — to the Middle East.

If you work at the Pentagon or in the armed forces, please text me on Signal: premthakker.35

Your anonymity will be protected.

Hospitals Are Walking Away From Trans Kids. They Shouldn’t Over the last year, through fear and intimidation, the Trump administration has succeeded in shrinking transgender adolescents’ access to gender-affirming care. One by one, programs that previously se...

One by one, hospitals are abandoning trans kids as they preemptively cave to HHS threats over Medicaid/Medicare funding.

They ought to consider the terrible message walking away from some kids sends about their dedication to caring for all of them. My latest @opinion.bloomberg.com (🎁 link):

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...

Sign Up for ScienceAdviser

Now more than ever, independent journalism is vital. Please consider supporting the work of @science.org's journalists:

1. Sign up for @nerdychristie.bsky.social's *excellent* ScienceAdviser newsletter: www.science.org/content/page...

2. Subscribe for $25/year. www.science.org/content/page...

Brain implants: What's standing in the way of pivotal trials, FDA approval Thirty years after scientists demonstrated how brain implants can help rhesus monkeys move robotic limbs using only their mind, the clinical pathway for the technology is still a little out of focus.

Brain-computer implants have helped some patients with ALS or paralysis move, speak and function

So why are they not yet approved? Companies, researchers and regulators can't agree on how to actually prove, in large trials, they work

Via @rosebroderick.bsky.social
www.statnews.com/2026/02/26/b...

Lonny Fritzler installs paneling on a future therapeutic foster home for kids whose parents need addiction treatment elsewhere. He says he had to leave his hometown of Lodge Grass to recover from his own addiction to meth.

Illustration by Oona Zenda of a man having to weigh prioritizing either his job or access to health care with a lawmaker in the background.

Hundreds of people join a protest in downtown Hamilton, Montana, in April supporting the work of federal employees as President Donald Trump oversees efforts to restructure the nation’s government.

Hi — new to BlueSky! I’m a journalist covering how health policy and systems impact people. Lately I’ve reported on federal cuts hitting a rural bioscience hub, a town recovering from meth, and a man who said he had to break Medicaid rules.

Based in Montana, I write for both 📰 and 📻

Pharma lobbyists focus on a surprising new target: the FDA Lobbyists told STAT they believe the odds of approval go up if a decision can be spun as a win for the Trump administration.

“It was always the case: if it’s FDA, leave it alone,” one lobbyist told STAT. “There’s been a swing. … Now the conversations are: Can we influence the process? I had never had that conversation before.”

STAT wins fourth Polk Award for reporting on impact of Trump on health STAT has won its fourth Polk Award in five years for documenting the Trump administration’s shakeup of the FDA, scientific research, and public health.

Huge congrats to @lizzylawrence.bsky.social for winning a George Polk award for her unrelenting coverage of turmoil at the FDA over the past year. The STAT team was also recognized for our reporting on the Trump admin's impact on health and science.

www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/s...

FDA reverses course, agrees to review Moderna’s flu vaccine The FDA reversed course and told Moderna it would review its application for a new flu vaccine, the company announced Wednesday.

BREAKING: FDA reverses course and will now review Moderna's flu vaccine, the company announced Wednesday www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/f...

Vertex’s CRISPR treatment for sickle cell disease hits unexpected roadblock Vertex is running out of time to establish Casgevy as a transformative treatment for sickle cell.

Vertex’s $VRTX CRISPR cure for sickle cell has been slow to launch, reaching just 60 patients in 2 years.

Doctors told STAT there's been a surprising culprit: They often can't collect enough cells to make the therapy

www.statnews.com/2026/02/05/v...

Why Bristol Myers Squibb believes a decades-old drug can treat Alzheimer’s Why Bristol Myers Squibb is banking on a decades-old drug to help secure its future.

Why Bristol Myers Squibb believes a decades-old drug can treat Alzheimer’s

www.statnews.com/2026/02/02/b...

Recently out from pedi oncology colleagues, about "cancer exceptionalism."

tl;dr: We accept therapy-induced malignancies as part of the benefit-risk calculus when treating cancer, but are unwilling to weigh them in the balance when treating nonmalignant disease. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

FDA halts gene therapy trials after brain tumor found in patient FDA paused trials for two experimental gene therapies from Regenxbio after one child developed a brain tumor.

FDA halts two Regenxbio gene therapy programs after brain tumor found in patient

Patient is asymptomatic. FDA was supposed to make a decision on lead program, for Hunter syndrome, on February 8

www.statnews.com/2026/01/28/f...

FDA’s new ‘plausible mechanism pathway’ for personalized gene editing raises concerns A new FDA pathway meant to enable one-time gene-editing cures could, ethicists warn, become a Pandora's box.

Scholars raise concerns about new FDA pathway for personalized CRISPR treatments

'When the FDA opens the door to these things, there’s a lot of pressure to then open the door a little wider and a little wider until an exceptional program becomes the norm'

www.statnews.com/2026/01/26/f...

FDA’s new ‘plausible mechanism pathway’ for personalized gene editing raises concerns A new FDA pathway meant to enable one-time gene-editing cures could, ethicists warn, become a Pandora's box.

Big oops
www.statnews.com/2026/01/26/f...

Endometriosis often takes years to diagnose. Startups want to change that At least a dozen biotech companies are developing tools to diagnose endometriosis more easily.

Endometriosis often takes years to diagnose. Startups want to change that

Scientists hunt for biomarkers in blood, menstrual fluid, spit, and stool

www.statnews.com/2026/01/26/e...

FDA’s new ‘plausible mechanism pathway’ for personalized gene editing raises concerns A new FDA pathway meant to enable one-time gene-editing cures could, ethicists warn, become a Pandora's box.

Thanks to @jasonmast.bsky.social for highlighting our analysis of FDA's new plausible mechanism pathway in @statnews.com.

Key pts:
- Plausible mech is a great idea for n of 1/few
- FDA needs to stop advancing policy via journal article
- Impt open Qs on scope

www.statnews.com/2026/01/26/f...

Scholars raise concerns about new FDA pathway for personalized CRISPR treatments

'When the FDA opens the door to these things, there’s a lot of pressure to then open the door a little wider and a little wider until an exceptional program becomes the norm'