The Readout Loud

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.It's a big week for FDA advisory committee meetings. Allison, Elaine, and Adam discuss Capricor Therapeutics' hearing in front of an FDA advisory committee. The company is asking the agency to approve its treatment for Duchenne, but advisers have questioned the data the company presented. They also discuss Replimmune's meeting with advisers to discuss its immunotherapy for melanoma.The hosts further discuss the latest news in the life sciences, including new details on how a fugitive worked as a biotech executive, cuts at GSK, and Sarepta Therapeutics' new CEO.

What does it take to develop a therapy for an ultra-rare disease? What are the allegations against a telehealth company that’s partnered with Novo Nordisk? And has a wanted fugitive been posing as a biotech executive?

We discuss all that and more on this week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. We speak with our colleagues Jason Mast and Matthew Herper about their impactful look at one father’s mission to develop a treatment for his daughter’s ultra-rare disease. The subject of that feature, Matt Wilsey, also joins us.

On this week’s episode of "The Readout LOUD": The Kalshi prediction markets are coming for biotech, plus the controversy over an experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Biogen.

Kalshi, the maker of prediction markets, announced this week that it is expanding into biotech. Soon, you’ll be able to make bets on the outcomes of clinical trials and FDA drug reviews. Is that a good thing? We’ll discuss the issues with Jonathan Kimmelman, a bioethicist at McGill University who has researched prediction in clinical trials.

We also chat about Biogen and its tau-lowering drug for Alzheimer’s. A mid-stage clinical trial presented this week showed the drug reduced levels of the tau protein and slowed the rate of cognitive decline in patients. But the data also raised a lot of questions that left experts and investors debating the drug’s future.

Why does getting family health insurance through a job cost as much as buying a new car? How did a whistleblower take on an insurance contractor? And who might be the new Food and Drug Administration commissioner?

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

STAT reporter Bob Herman joins us to discuss his new series, "Out of Pocket, Out of Reach," which dives into how soaring costs for health insurance are hurting Americans and small business owners. We also speak with Chris Deacon, who filed a whistleblower lawsuit after spotting how an insurer may have violated contracts to provide health benefits for New Jersey's state workers.

We also discuss the latest news in life sciences, including Anthropic's push into drug development and Vertex's largest-ever acquisition.

Who got exclusive access to Eli Lilly's highly anticipated obesity candidate? Why are drugmakers spending so much money on acquisitions? And are hair loss drugs a good investment?

We discuss all that and more on this week's episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT's biotech podcast. We bring on our colleague Lizzy Lawrence to discuss her scoop that Lilly and the Food and Drug Administration have allowed one person to receive the pharma company's obesity candidate, retatrutide, through the FDA’s “compassionate use” program.

We also discuss the resurgence of M&A, Lilly's interest in a hair loss drug, and then the FDA's reversal on rare disease drugs.