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Federal appeals court blocks mailing of abortion pill mifepristone

A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone prescriptions. Friday’s unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in person and at clinics, overruling regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The ruling, which is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enforce abortion bans. In the ruling, Judge Kyle Duncan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, agreed with the state of Louisiana’s contention that allowing the drug to be mailed there makes moot the state’s ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. “Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling states. Mifepristone is involved in most abortions in the U.S. Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as

What do medical students think about their education?

Below is a lightly edited, AI-generated transcript of the “First Opinion Podcast” interview with Tiffany Onyejiaka and Lauren Rice. Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the “First Opinion Podcast” newsletter. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter, delivered every Sunday. Torie Bosch: Amid the rise of the Make America Healthy Again movement, medical school has become something of a battleground. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others have argued that future doctors need to better understand nutrition and preventive care. But what do medical students themselves think about that claim? Welcome to the “First Opinion Podcast.” I’m Torie Bosch, editor of First Opinion. First Opinion is set home for big, bold ideas from health care providers, researchers, patients, and others who have something to say about the most important and interesting topics in medicine. This season, we’re focused on the intersection of medicine and culture. I recently spoke with Tiffany Onyejiaka and Lauren Rice. Tiffany is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a graduate

STAT readers on MAHA activists, perimenopause, and diversity in medical school

First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and provocative articles about the life sciences writ large, written by biotech insiders, health care workers, researchers, and others. To encourage robust, good-faith discussion about issues raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to them. You can submit a Letter to the Editor here, or find the submission form at the end of any First Opinion essay. The story “I’m a MAHA activist. I went into the public health lion’s den — and it changed how I think,” by Aaron Everitt The response It’s great that you had the opportunity to actually interact in a professional setting with the people in our country who have actual expertise: doctors, scientists, etc. Unfortunately, the resources don’t exist to take every flat-earther to the International Space Station to change their mind. It seems MAHA folks are being intentionally misdirected by meaningless nonsense (like concerns about red 40 dye, vaccines, and fluoridated water) to intentionally distract you, the medical/scientific communities, and our wider population, pitting us all against each other so that we aren’t focused on the real issue: the corporate interests and their corruption of our politics

Pharmalittle: We’re reading about obesity drugs and a compounding list, an AstraZeneca setback, and more

By Ed SilvermanMay 1, 2026 Pharmalot Columnist, Senior Writer And so, another working week will soon draw to a close. Not a moment too soon, yes? This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda: promenading with the official mascots, manicuring the Pharmalot grounds, and escorting Mrs. Pharmalot to a supper club. We also hope to find time for yet another listening party, where the rotation will likely include this, this, this, this, this. And what about you? As we like to remind folks, this is a fine time to enjoy the great outdoors. Hiking, strolling, dipping your toe in the water — take your pick. Of course, if the weather fails to cooperate, you could catch up on your reading, binge-watch on the telly, or tidy up around the castle. The possibilities are endless, yes? Well, whatever you do, have a grand time. But be safe. Enjoy, and see you soon…. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed excluding the active ingredients in wildly popular obesity and diabetes drugs from a list of substances that can be used for making certain compounded versions, STAT writes. The agency determined there is no “clinical need”

PFAS is still in some infant formula

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here. Too much news yesterday, so here’s a link to a late-breaking story that the FDA has chosen Vinay Prasad’s interim successor. Trump drops Casey Means’ surgeon general nomination The White House has dropped its nomination of Casey Means to be the next surgeon general, opting instead for Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor. The swap signals the limits of the Trump administration’s power in the Senate and represents a blow to the Make America Healthy Again movement’s months-long push to get Means confirmed. But Saphier’s interest in personal wellness and skepticism of vaccine mandates suggest she may be able to appeal to both MAHA and more mainstream Republican senators. President Trump announced the change in a social media post and blamed Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who leads the committee tasked with reviewing the surgeon general nomination, for tanking Means. Cassidy, we will remind you, was the deciding vote to approve Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. Read more from my STAT colleagues, including a look at Saphier in her own words. If a model outperforms physicians, should that

Her daughter Mila got a bespoke medicine. Now she’s starting a new biotech to make more

After a prior effort shuttered, Julia Vitarello is trying again Adobe Andrew Joseph covers health, medicine, and the biopharma industry in Europe. You can reach Andrew on Signal at drewqjoseph.71. ROME — Julia Vitarello, whose daughter Mila eight years ago received a bespoke medicine designed for her particular disease-causing mutation, said this week that she is in the process of starting a new company to try to create these individualized therapies at scale. Vitarello’s previous effort, called EveryONE Medicines, recently folded in part because new Food and Drug Administration guidance encouraging the development of customized therapies did not go far enough in creating a pathway to satisfy EveryONE’s investors, Vitarello said. Now Vitarello and collaborators are looking for new funders. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers Unlock this article — plus daily coverage and analysis of the biotech sector — by subscribing to STAT+. Already have an account? Log in View All Plans To read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+. Subscribe Europe Correspondent Andrew Joseph covers health, medicine, and the biopharma industry in Europe. You can reach Andrew on Signal at drewqjoseph.71.

The psychedelic revolution is leaving behind people of color

Flanked by one of psychedelics’ biggest celebrity cheerleaders, Joe Rogan, and a troupe of MAHA loyalists, President Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at accelerating psychedelic access for clinical research and treatment. Use of naturally occurring and synthetic hallucinogens traces back to the Neanderthals. Yet these substances have long been a pariah in mainstream medicine, written off as “club drugs” with little to no clinical value (or worse, downright negative effects). But they no longer sit on the fringes of medicine. In August, for instance, pharmaceutical giant AbbVie inked a billion-dollar deal, the first of its kind, to acquire Bretisilocin, a psychedelic compound used to treat major depressive disorder. Now Trump is directing federal agencies to streamline regulatory pathways, expand clinical trials, and explore mechanisms for broader therapeutic use. With the federal government formally throwing its hat in the ring, this is likely just the start of a much broader trend of Big Pharma investing heavily in the drugs. As researchers who focus on mental illness and addiction, we see psychedelics’ potential as a form of treatment as virtually unmatched. But their promise faces both scientific uncertainty and thorny political questions — especially when it comes to their benefits

America is worrying about fertility again. But it’s not really about families

America is worried about fertility rates — again. Coverage of the country’s declining birth rate reflects widespread unease: Families are struggling, young adults are delaying or forgoing parenthood, and the future labor force feels uncertain. These concerns are rooted in real social and economic challenges. Childcare is unaffordable, housing is out of reach for many, health care access is precarious, and paid parental leave is still not guaranteed. Only now, as these pressures have produced sustained fertility declines, have calls for expanded material supports gained real political traction. But America’s anxiety about fertility has never been only, or even primarily, about supporting families. It is about who is having children, under what conditions, and in whose interest. In other words, it is about power and control. Throughout U.S. history, reproduction has been treated less as a deeply personal decision than as a tool for securing national strength, economic growth, and demographic dominance. Political attention to fertility rises not because people’s lives have become easier or harder, but because births are not occurring in the “right” way, at the “right” pace, or among the “right” groups. The language and targets have shifted over time, but the underlying logic of reproductive governance

‘Forever chemicals’ in baby formula? Scientists unpack FDA results

The big takeaway from a new government survey of infant formula is that the U.S. supply is largely safe. But experts and health officials say there are still steps that can be taken to make a product consumed by two-thirds of infants in the U.S. even safer.One noteworthy finding from the Food and Drug Administration’s testing of 312 formula samples concerned per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.” The FDA detected five PFAS in the samples it tested, with the most common one — PFOS — found in half of all samples. Of those samples, the vast majority (95%) contained less than 2.9 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFOS. What, exactly, does that mean? The FDA analysis doesn’t explain the PFAS results in much detail. But parents are bound to wonder, given that higher levels of exposure to PFAS, man-made chemicals used in products like nonstick cookware and stain-resistant clothing and rugs, have been linked to conditions including higher cholesterol, kidney and testicular cancer, and reduced vaccine efficacy. STAT emailed with two experts for their reads on the results: Alex Bogdan, a toxicologist at the Minnesota Department of Public Health who’s studied PFAS in infant formula,

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma set to dissolve after judge approves its criminal sentence

‘It is not lost on me that those who started the epidemic will not serve a sentence,’ the judge said Kathleen Scarpone, left, and others protest in front of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., in 2019. Scarpone lost her son to OxyContin addiction.Josh Reynolds/AP By Associated PressApril 30, 2026 NEWARK, N.J. — OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is set to be dissolved and replaced by a company focused on the public good by the week’s end, as a massive legal settlement resolving thousands of lawsuits takes effect. A federal judge on Tuesday delivered a criminal sentence to the company to resolve a Department of Justice probe — a last necessary step to clear the way for the settlement. U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo made her decision after listening to hours of impact statements from people who lost loved ones or struggled with addiction themselves and requested she reject the negotiated sentence. While she didn’t go that far, she said she sympathized with people who bore the brunt of an epidemic linked to more than 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive

Remembering J. Craig Venter: a relentless scientist who changed biotech — and was all too easily misunderstood

J. Craig Venter, a scientist whose relentless ambition helped turn genetics from an artisanal trade into an industrialized information machine, died Wednesday at 79. The cause was side effects of a cancer treatment. Along the way, he did things that can only be described as really cool. He raced against a government-funded project to sequence the first human genome, grabbing headlines around the world; traveled the ocean in his sailboat collecting genetic information about sea life; and removed a bacterium’s genome and rebooted the organism with an identical set of genes he and his team had synthesized. He drove fast cars, drank red wine, and pissed people off. Here’s the thing — the mythos of the man gets in the way of understanding the scientist and his importance. And Venter was easy to misunderstand. Scientists thought he was a crazy, greedy businessman. Business people thought he was a crazy, greedy scientist. I think he viewed himself as a scientist who used the business world to get science done. And that means that in some ways, though Venter was famous, he was not famous for the reasons he is worth remembering. His biggest accomplishments — helping create the fields of genomics

Katherine Szarama named acting director of FDA’s vaccines and biologics center

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has named Katherine Szarama as the acting director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which regulates vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply. A Health and Human Services official confirmed the move, which was first reported by Politico, to STAT. She is replacing Vinay Prasad, who left the agency on Thursday after a tumultuous tenure during which he issued a series of controversial decisions on rare disease drugs and vaccines. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in March that Prasad would return to the University of California San Francisco. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers Unlock this article — plus daily intelligence on Capitol Hill and the life sciences industry — by subscribing to STAT+. Already have an account? Log in View All Plans To read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+. Subscribe

As artificial intelligence shows off diagnostic chops, scientists reckon with the way forward

Katie Palmer covers telehealth, clinical artificial intelligence, and the health data economy — with an emphasis on the impacts of digital health care for patients, providers, and businesses. You can reach Katie on Signal at palmer.01.Getting a paper published in Science is a highlight of many researchers’ careers. But for internist and clinical artificial intelligence researcher Adam Rodman, it’s also been a source of some agita. On Thursday, Rodman and his colleagues published a compilation of experiments, including one using real-world data from a Boston emergency department, that show a large language model from OpenAI can outperform physicians in case-based diagnostic and clinical reasoning evaluations. To Rodman, the paper’s co-senior author, it’s a response to a gauntlet thrown down in Science in 1959. That paper “described how you would know that a clinical decision support system was capable of doing diagnosis better than humans,” he said. “And they can do it.” But as generative AI tools like chatbots are heavily marketed — both to patients and clinicians — it makes him worried that the science experiments, all based on simulated and historical cases, will be misconstrued as proof of AI’s safety and efficacy when used to treat real patients. STAT+

Trump drops Casey Means as surgeon general nominee, opts for radiologist Nicole Saphier

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has dropped its nomination of Casey Means to be the next surgeon general, opting instead for Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor. The move is a blow to the Make America Healthy Again movement’s months-long push to get Means confirmed. But Saphier shares some commonalities with MAHA, including an interest in personal wellness and a skepticism of vaccine mandates. It also signals the limits of President Trump’s power to achieve Senate approval, especially after months of concerns from lawmakers about his health agenda. The administration has nominated a health official to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who is also awaiting Senate review. Trump announced the change on social media and blamed Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) for blocking Means. Cassidy leads the committee tasked with nominees for surgeon general. He called the senator, a physician who has expressed deep concerns with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine policies, “disloyal.” “Nevertheless, despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country,” Trump wrote. Nicole Saphier attends FOX Nation’s 2024 Patriot Awards at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Greenvale,

FDA wants to exclude weight loss drugs from a compounding list

By Ed SilvermanApril 30, 2026 Pharmalot Columnist, Senior Writer The Food and Drug Administration has proposed excluding the active ingredients in wildly popular obesity and diabetes drugs from a list of substances that can be used for making certain compounded versions. The agency determined there is no “clinical need” to allow large compounding facilities to make large quantities of medicines from semaglutide, the ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy weight loss and Ozempic diabetes treatments, as well as tirzepatide, the ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro diabetes drug and Zepbound obesity medicine. The decision singled out these compounders, which are known as 503B facilities in regulatory parlance, after growing controversy over their role in making weight loss treatments available over the past few years. In explaining its decision — which is a victory for Novo and Lilly and will rework choices for consumers — the FDA explained these compounders no longer meet the legal requirements to market their products. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers Unlock this article — plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts. Already have an account? Log in View All Plans To read the rest of

Five-way obesity drug is super effective — in mice

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. Move over, GLP-1s. A preclinical next-gen obesity drug is stacking five mechanisms (in mice). Also, the NIH funding climate is rougher than ever, Novartis is reshoring more of its manufacturing, and another Alzheimer’s program is scuttled. The need-to-know this morning More pharma earnings: Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly Notable biotech earnings: Alnylam. UniQure said it will submit a marketing application for its Huntington’s disease gene therapy to U.K. regulators in the third quarter. Craig Venter, scientist, genomic pioneer and entrepreneur, died. It’s far harder to get an NIH grant these days The odds of landing an NIH grant have cratered to near-unsustainable levels. Only 13% of applications were funded last year, STAT’s Anil Oza writes, with even top-scoring proposals no longer having good odds. Now, researchers are scrambling to survive in a system that’s become both hypercompetitive and opaque. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers Unlock this article — plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts. Already have an account? Log in View