We are thrilled that the super-talented Zachary Tracer is joining STAT as senior editor for business/policy! Also several exciting promotions, including Rachel Cohrs Zhang as chief DC correspondent!
statnews.com/new-leadership…

Discussed in my email newsletter this week:
-- Where art thou, lupus patients? The 'pivot to autoimmune' frenzy is fraught with risk, including finding lupus patients for all those planned clinical trials!

-- $VERA takeout speculation. Why did $VRTX buy $ALPN and is there a…

ARCH, Medicines Co. veterans raise $290 million for in-licensed obesity drugs statnews.com/2024/04/18/met… via Allison DeAngelis

Cerevel $CERE drug for Parkinson’s disease improved symptom control in trial $ABBV statnews.com/2024/04/18/cer… via Elaine Chen

Thank you, Bayern, Real Madrid. Thank you.

STAT won another NIHCM Award!

My colleagues Bob Herman and Casey Ross are winners of the 2024 NIHCM Investigative and General Reporting Award for a series of stories showing how insurers use AI to deny care to sick Americans.

nihcm.org/awards/winners…

This is STAT's third…

Teladoc $TDOC became a household name under Jason Gorevic. Investors wanted more statnews.com/2024/04/17/tel… via Mario Aguilar Mohana Ravindranath

$SAGE pipeline setback.

SAGE-718 failed to improve cognition vs placebo in Parkinson's ph2 study

Studies of -718 in Alzheimer's and Huntington's reading out later this year.

investor.sagerx.com/news-releases/…

Eli Lilly’s $LLY Zepbound eases obstructive sleep apnea in trials statnews.com/2024/04/17/eli… via Elaine Chen

JPM's $VERA call started at 1 pm ET. What happened? What did management say?

I have an embarrassing but necessary retraction to make. Please disregard today's article on the Taysha PIPE lawsuit.

Unbeknownst to me, the plaintiff in the case withdrew the suit last Thursday.

I had last checked the Del. Chancery court filing system on Thursday afternoon.…

A new PIPE lawsuit filed by a $TSHA shareholder challenges the fairness of sharing confidential, stock-moving information statnews.com/2024/04/16/tay…

“A case like this puts PIPEs on the SEC’s radar screen,” Erik Gordon, a business and law professor at the University of Michigan,…

What could go wrong?

$ITCI Intra-Cellular reports positive results in depression study aimed at expanding use of antispsychotic medicine statnews.com/2024/04/16/int…

$ITCI
Lumateperone 42 mg met the primary endpoint of change from baseline at Week 6 on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) total score versus placebo (4.9 point reduction v. placebo; p<0.0001; Cohen’s d effect size (ES)= 0.61)

$ITCI Announces Positive Phase 3 Topline Results from Study 501 Evaluating Lumateperone as Adjunctive Therapy in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

ir.intracellulartherapies.com/news-releases/…

Can investing in infectious disease pay off? Vir Biotechnology’s $VIR tightrope walk shows it’s a struggle statnews.com/2024/04/15/vir…

$BHVN just 8K'd a BHV-1300 update.

Strange investor relations policy.

sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archiv…