Jason Mast

1 week ago | statnews.com | Adam Feuerstein |Jason Mast

The death of a second teenage boy from liver failure caused by a gene therapy from Sarepta Therapeutics has left the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community angry, fearful and divided over whether to maintain hope in the therapy. Kameron Lawson learned about the boy’s death from a phone call from his son’s neurologist on Sunday morning. His own 10-year-old son, Konner, received the treatment, called Elevidys, in early April and began experiencing signs of liver failure six weeks later.

2 weeks ago | statnews.com | Matthew Herper |Jason Mast |Allison DeAngelis

National Resilience, a startup that has raised over $2 billion by promising to transform drug manufacturing, said Monday that it would “wind down” many of its facilities. But what remains of the firm will seek to raise an additional $250 million from existing investors and continue to build its business and seek more capital. Through a bit of financial engineering, an affiliate of the company that holds leases for six of the company’s manufacturing facilities is filing for bankruptcy.

3 weeks ago | statnews.com | Jason Mast

What will the Trump Administration mean for gene therapy? Researchers, advocates and executives got a glimpse of the answer Thursday, as the Food and Drug Administration convened a “Cell and Gene Therapy Roundtable.”It was an unusual event. Multiple panelists told STAT on Wednesday they didn’t know what the agenda or goal of the meeting was. There was little debate. No details were hashed out, no specific promises made.

3 weeks ago | statnews.com | Jason Mast

Vijay Yadav warned people not to start downing taurine — an amino acid abundant in plants, animals and some energy drinks — just because his mice and monkey study suggested it might be an elixir for long life. But that doesn’t mean they listened. “The other day, I was talking to the scientific director of the largest pharma in the U.S., he was taking 14 grams of taurine per day,” said Yadav, or roughly 14 Red Bulls’ worth.

3 weeks ago | statnews.com | Jason Mast

Atai Life Sciences, among the most prominent biotechs focused on psychedelic medicines, said Monday it will merge with private psychedelic startup Beckley Psytech, pending results of a trial for a drug based on the practice of “smoking toad.”The new company will be known as Atai Beckley, with Beckley Psytech shareholders receiving 31% of shares in the entity. The deal, which values Beckley at $370 million, comes as the Trump Administration has expressed support for the field.