Sydney Lupkin
Sydney Lupkin is the pharmaceuticals correspondent for NPR.
She was most recently a correspondent at Kaiser Health News, where she covered drug prices and specialized in data reporting for its enterprise team. She's reported on how tainted drugs can reach consumers, how companies take advantage of rare disease drug rules and how FDA-approved generics often don't make it to market. She's also tracked pharmaceutical dollars to patient advocacy groups and members of Congress. Her work has won the National Press Club's Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award, the National Institute for Health Care Management's Digital Media Award and a health reporting award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.
Lupkin graduated from Boston University. She's also worked for ABC News, VICE News, MedPage Today and The Bay Citizen. Her internship and part-time work includes stints at ProPublica, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The New England Center for Investigative Reporting and WCVB.
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On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of remdesivir for patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Drugmaker Gilead Sciences' lobbying hit a new high in the first quarter. -
Experts say it could be dangerous to rely on overseas production of medicine in a crisis, but the U.S. largely does. Rebuilding domestic capacity would take years and substantial investments. -
The Department of Health and Human Services outlines support for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, as the companies work to develop coronavirus vaccines. Beefing up manufacturing capacity is a priority. -
Chloroquine and hydroxycloroquine got the Food and Drug Administration's go-ahead to be put in the nation's strategic storehouses. But the drugs haven't been approved to treat coronavirus patients. -
Gilead Declines 'Rare Disease' Status For Experimental Coronavirus DrugBy renouncing the special status, Gilead Sciences lets go of tax breaks, fee waivers and seven years without generic competition for remdesivir, its experimental COVID-19 treatment. -
Gilead Science's remdesivir, an antiviral medicine being tested for treatment of COVID-19, would get a seven-year monopoly if approved by the Food and Drug Administration. -
It's too soon to know if the antiviral compound tested in 2014 as a potential Ebola treatment will hobble the coronavirus. Lab tests show promise, but studies in people with COVID-19 have only begun. -
A vaccine against coronavirus looks to be at least a year away. Doctors are trying existing medicines that might be useful in the meantime. One appears promising.
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New research indicates that insurers are covering far fewer drugs than they did a decade ago. The reduction in options can interrupt care and leave people with hard choices at the pharmacy counter.
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Two nearly identical drug implants have very different prices. The one for kids has a list price of $37,300. For adults, it's $4,400. A dad fought for his daughter to be able to get the cheaper drug.
