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Matthew Herper

@matthewherper.bsky.social
7.3K followers 708 following 522 posts

I write about medicine at STAT. This is biology's century. Every data point has a face.

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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
What a vote on Grail’s cancer detection test could mean for the company, patients, and regulators www.statnews.com/2026/09/21/g... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
What a vote on Grail’s cancer detection test could mean for the company, patients, and regulators
Shares in Grail, the company developing a blood test for cancer, surged Monday after the FDA posted documents ahead of an advisory committee meeting.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Inside Moderna and Merck’s cancer vaccine triumph www.statnews.com/2026/08/24/i... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
Inside Moderna and Merck’s cancer vaccine triumph
Moderna and Merck's wild gambit on a cancer vaccine appears to have worked, despite big doubts, logistical challenges, and pandemic-era complications.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial www.statnews.com/2026/08/19/m... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial
A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in a late-stage melanoma study, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Every time the Merck MMR vaccine goes into an arm, it is a father’s lasting revenge against a virus that made his daughter sick. Why Trump's move to split up the MMR shot could be dangerous: www.statnews.com/2026/08/11/h...
statnews.com
How we know that splitting up the MMR vaccine could be dangerous
It's no mystery. History tells us that President Trump’s executive order calling for the MMR to be split into separate shots could do real harm.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
In win for RFK Jr., FDA advisory panel narrowly votes to allow compounding of unapproved peptides www.statnews.com/2026/07/23/f... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
In win for RFK Jr., FDA advisory panel narrowly votes to allow compounding of unapproved peptides
The panel recommended allowing compounding pharmacies to produce popular but unproven BPC-157 and KPV peptides.
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Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 09/07/2026
The story of Grace Science, the Wilsey family who launched this mission to develop gene therapy treatment for NGly deficiency, and the struggles along the way - some inherent to ultrarare disease and some frustratingly imposed by regulatory demands www.statnews.com/2026/07/09/m...
statnews.com
The quest to save Grace — and clear the way for rare disease patients everywhere
How a father’s quest may shape the future of rare disease gene therapy.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
ARPA-H launches $160 million effort to develop custom gene editing drugs Program will fund seven groups over five years in hope of Baby KJ-like successes www.statnews.com/2026/07/09/a...
statnews.com
ARPA-H launches $160 million effort to develop custom gene editing drugs
An ARPA-H program to jump-start custom gene editing treatments was delayed by a change in administrations. Now seven labs will get sizable grants.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The quest to save Grace — and clear the way for rare disease patients everywhere www.statnews.com/2026/07/09/m...
statnews.com
The quest to save Grace — and clear the way for rare disease patients everywhere
How a father’s quest may shape the future of rare disease gene therapy.
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Megan Molteni @mmolteni.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Meet SpudCell, a collection of a few dozen genes floating inside a fatty membrane-encased bubble. @matthewherper.bsky.social writes about the scientists who’ve come closest to building a living cell from scratch. www.statnews.com/2026/07/01/s...
statnews.com
Synthetic biology researchers think they’ve made a cell. Is it alive?
Researchers have created what they say may count as the first synthetic cell, and have started a public benefit corporation to share the technology with
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I spoke to Anthropic’s CEO about how AI may affect biotech. Here’s what I learned www.statnews.com/2026/07/06/a... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
I spoke to Anthropic’s CEO about how AI may affect biotech. Here’s what I learned
Call AI in biotech hype at your peril. There are real reasons that pharmaceutical companies are embracing this technology right now.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Why aren't big pharma CEO speaking out against Trump's changes to science funding? @dereklowe.bsky.social thinks they are scared -- and rightly so. www.science.org/content/blog...
science.org
Speaking Up: Who Is, and Who Isn't
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Lizzy Lawrence @lizzylawrence.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
EXCLUSIVE: Eli Lilly gave compassionate use access to retatrutide, their unapproved powerful obesity drug, to a 79-year-old man in April. The application was arranged by a top doctor at NIH, and cleared by the FDA. www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/e...
statnews.com
Eli Lilly gave extraordinary obesity drug access to a 79-year-old patient. Who was it?
Exclusive: STAT has learned that Eli Lilly and the FDA allowed a 79-year-old to gain extraordinary access to an experimental obesity drug through the agency’s “compassionate use” program.
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Bosco @wboscoho.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This is a great episode @dkthomp.bsky.social w/ @matthewherper.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...
podcasts.apple.com
The Most Exciting Month of Medical Breakthroughs in Years
Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · June 16 · 59m
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Wow! I’ll take this.
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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - Argonaut2026@gmail.com
group.springernature.com
Springer Nature to divest its consumer media businesses | Springer Nature Group | Springer Nature
Strategic divestment of consumer media portfolio enables Springer Nature to focus on its core business Transaction supports the long-term development
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
!!! RFK Jr. claims his calendar is publicly available. We’ve been trying to get it for a year, via @statnews.com
statnews.com
RFK Jr. claims his calendar is publicly available. We've been trying to get it for a year
None of STAT's requests for Kennedy's schedule have been completed, and some haven't even been acknowledged.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
For pancreatic cancer patients, an exciting drug can feel out of reach www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
For pancreatic cancer patients, an exciting drug can feel out of reach
For pancreatic cancer patients, the surge in interest for an exciting new drug is leaving them fearful about when they might get the treatment or if there will be enough to go around.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Sold out. Waitlist at the same link.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
There are a very small number of tickets left for our Science vs. Cancer event in Chicago tonight. Sign up if you want to attend! www.statnews.com/event/stat-a...
statnews.com
STAT@ASCO: Science vs. Cancer
STAT returns to Chicago for its annual event alongside ASCO, the largest cancer research conference in the world.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
MIT president: Why so many optimistic scientists are losing heart www.statnews.com/2026/05/27/s... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
MIT president: Why so many optimistic scientists are losing heart
“This erosion of our strength is a loss for the nation,” writes MIT President Sally Kornbluth.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
This represents a real problem, yes. Because that is really the only new business model that has been functioning in journalism, and it produces a lot of the best writing (us, The Information, etc.)
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Marty Makary was the worst FDA commissioner in 25 years. I have covered the agency that long. I don't say this lightly. He failed at the political, organizational, and scientific aspects of the job. Here's why: www.statnews.com/2026/05/12/m...
statnews.com
Why Marty Makary was the worst FDA commissioner in 25 years
Marty Makary, who resigned under pressure from the FDA, brought to the job a fundamental lack of understanding of the nature of the role, STAT's Matthew Herper writes.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
TLDR: There's a lot to think about. It will be really nice if people actually think. I am not holding my breath there!
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
4. One of the reasons we really want an mRNA flu vaccine in use is because it would be extremely useful in the case of a flu pandemic because of its faster production cycle. It's hard to weigh that in a regulatory decision.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
2. The tolerability issues for the Moderna vaccine would be a real issue. 3. One big issue is that trials can't deal with the question we really want answered: can the Moderna vaccine be made to better match circulating screens and will that lead to better efficacy? This trial doesn't tell us.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
My own takeaways here: 1. The RTF was genuinely odd. FDA clearly had given Moderna and Pfizer feedback that led to the exact same trial. Moderna's vaccine performed better. There were problems with the comparator, but that was something that would normally be dealt with with a review.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
There was a twitter fight around the Y-axis on the efficacy slide at that time, which some people thought was unfairly truncated. To be clear: this was Moderna's slide, not mine. NEJM handled this by using "total cases" instead of "percent infected." Same graf. x.com/drjohnm/stat...
x.com
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
The data here are very much the same, issues of presentation aside, as when I highlighted them during the whole Prasad/RTF fracas. Here's that thread. x.com/matthewherpe...
x.com
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
But it's also worth noting that Moderna beat Pfizer on an important metric. The vaccine efficacy for those over 65 was about the same as it was for the whole group. That's very different from what editorialists wrote about the Pfizer vaccine here: www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...
nejm.org
An Early Look at mRNA Vaccines to Prevent Influenza | NEJM
Annual influenza vaccination campaigns are a trusted tool in efforts to decrease the morbidity and mortality of influenza in the United States, with an effectiveness of 36 to 54% at preventing infl...
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
One of the big takeaways with this vaccine is that it seems pretty unpleasant to take -- although it certainly has better efficacy, it also causes more headaches, body aches, and sore arms. That would be a big commercial problem.
Graphs showing that headaches, fatigue and injection-site pain are more common with Moderna's shot.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
And here are two recent NEJM studies on high-dose influenza vaccine nejm.org/doi/full/10.... nejm.org/doi/full/10....
nejm.org
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
You can read the whole paper at this link. nejm.org/doi/full/10.... You might also want to compare to the efficacy of Pfizer's mRNA flu vaccine in a similar study. nejm.org/doi/full/10....
nejm.org
Efficacy and Safety of an mRNA Seasonal Influenza Vaccine in Adults | NEJM
Seasonal influenza causes substantial illness and death in adults 50 years of age or older, even with current vaccines. An investigational messenger RNA (mRNA)–based vaccine called mRNA-1010 encode...
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
A Friday footnote: The New England Journal of Medicine has published the Moderna influenza vaccine data -- the same that led the FDA's CBER division to refuse to review the vaccine under Vinay Prasad. First, the efficacy slide.
Slide showing Moderna's influenza vaccine outperforming a standard dose flu shot.
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Kristen V. Brown @kristenvbrown.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
"He drove fast cars, drank red wine, and pissed people off." @matthewherper.bsky.social on Craig Venter www.statnews.com/2026/04/30/c...
statnews.com
Remembering J. Craig Venter: a relentless scientist who changed biotech — and was all too easily misunderstood
J. Craig Venter, the scientist whose relentless ambition helped turn genetics from an artisanal trade into an industrialized information machine, died at 79.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
How an outsider crept into Eli Lilly’s top ranks — and plans to drive its business forward  www.statnews.com/2026/03/25/e... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
How an outsider crept into Eli Lilly’s top ranks — and plans to drive its business forward
How an outsider crept into Eli Lilly’s top ranks — and plans to drive its business forward.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
How to get rich on out-of-network medical bills -- and how to get angry reading about it. www.statnews.com/2026/03/18/n...
statnews.com
How a Texas couple is getting rich off out-of-network medical bills
STAT investigates how a Texas couple cashed in on a new law that's supposed to protect patients from surprise medical bills.
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Paul Knoepfler @stemcells.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The best take I've seen on Prasad's 2nd exit from FDA comes from @matthewherper.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/03/08/v...
statnews.com
5 lessons from Vinay Prasad's turbulent tenure at the FDA
Vinay Prasad's unique ability to attract criticism — even when his bosses, including the president, wanted him to keep his head low — did him in at the FDA.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The extremism of the FDA’s Marks and Prasad has come with costs www.statnews.com/2026/03/05/v... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
The extremism of the FDA's Marks and Prasad has come with costs
With the current leadership of the FDA, the rare-disease community is suffering whiplash. Drugmakers are frustrated. And investors are sitting on their wallets.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary: "Vinay Prasad is a genius...some of the drugs they are criticizing him for that got rejected either had stone cold, normal trial results, or he wasn’t even involved." www.statnews.com/2026/02/26/m...
statnews.com
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary defends rare disease drug rejections, Vinay Prasad
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary defended the agency’s recent rejections of rare disease drugs and one of his deputies, Vinay Prasad, in an interview with CNBC.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
5 key people to watch at HHS after Trump’s shake-up www.statnews.com/2026/02/19/h... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
5 key people to watch at HHS after Trump’s shake-up
HHS has elevated a new team of health policy experts, including a former health IT exec and a Trump administration veteran.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
NIH Director Bhattacharya to lead CDC after O’Neill’s exit www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/c... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
NIH Director Bhattacharya to lead CDC after O’Neill’s exit
He's the third leader of the public health agency since this summer.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Upcoming meeting of federal vaccine panel may be postponed after HHS missed deadlines www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/c... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
Upcoming meeting of federal vaccine panel may be postponed after HHS missed deadlines
Federal officials have missed the legal deadline to notify the public of an upcoming ACIP meeting, raising questions about whether the meeting will be postponed.
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Jonathan Wosen @jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
"Well that didn’t take long." @matthewherper.bsky.social for @statnews.com on why the FDA's abrupt reversal on Moderna's flu vaccine is one more sign of chaos at the agency.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This morning, the FDA reversed course. It will now review Moderna's flu vaccine. The FDA's decisions have become far less predictable, but one thing has been constant: vaccine head Vinay Prasad has always chosen the most attention-grabbing action he can. www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/m...
statnews.com
The FDA’s Moderna pirouette is one more sign of chaos at the agency
For drugmakers and vaccine developers, an FDA reversal on Moderna's flu vaccine is better than the alternative. But it is also another sign of agency chaos.
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J. Emory Parker 🏳️‍🌈 @jaspar.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
So about TrumpRx: We crunched the numbers today and about half of the drugs on there have cheaper generics available already. www.statnews.com/2026/02/06/t...
We found at least 18 of the drugs on TrumpRx have cheaper generics available ranging from potential savings of over $600 for Tikosyn to just around $2 for Diflucan. Most of the drugs are made by Pfizer.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Statins don’t cause most of the side effects on package warnings, study finds www.statnews.com/2026/02/05/s... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
Statins don’t cause most of the side effects on package warnings, study finds
Many people who should be taking statins avoid them for fear of side effects. A large new study says most of those side effects don't actually show up.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Legendary editor Martin Baron on the cuts at the Washington Post. "This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction" www.linkedin.com/posts/mabaro...
linkedin.com
This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations. The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be… | ...
This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations. The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be fur...
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
I'm at the Willard Hotel where I've been denied entry and kicked out of the Reclaiming Science event with NIH director Bhattacharya & other top agency leaders. @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social and I registered for the event months ago yet were told capacity was full, even as they let in dozens of others.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Genes influence human lifespan far more than thought, new study suggests www.statnews.com/2026/01/29/h... via @statnews.com
statnews.com
Genes influence human lifespan far more than thought, new study suggests
How big of a role do our genes play in our lifespan? Quite a bit more than previously thought, a new study suggests.
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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
This story complicates things that seem simple, but aren’t. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
kffhealthnews.org
This Teen Never Got His Day in Vaccine Court. His Former Lawyer Now Advises RFK on Its Overhaul. - KFF Health News
The federal government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was supposed to help patients with their medical bills while protecting vaccine supply. But allies of Health and Human Services Secretary R...
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