The ethical way to develop psychedelic medicines; confronting head-on diversity-defeating clinical trial efforts; & overriding IP rights

Opinion and perspective curated by First Opinion editor Patrick Skerrett ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

Sponsored by      Though the dog days of summer may have come early, First Opinion authors continued to tackle topics ranging from waiving intellectual property to the ethical way to develop psychedelic medicines and confronting head-on diversity-defeating clinical trial efforts. You can read them all here. If you have an idea for an essay, or want to submit one you've written, please send it to first.opinion@statnews.com. WTO: Don't make a bad situation worse by granting intellectual property waivers for Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics By Kenneth E. Thorpe SAUL LOEB/ via Getty Images The WTO already suspended patent protections for Covid vaccines. They shouldn't agree to waivers on therapeutics and diagnostics too. Read More Working with Indigenous allies is the ethical way to develop psychedelic-based pharmaceuticals By Jeeshan Chowdhury Adobe Indigenous peoples pioneered the use of psychedelics. They should benefit from the rush to make and sell psychedelic pharmaceuticals. Read More I learned up close and personal about the necessity of improving diversity in clinical trials By Quita Highsmith Expanding the diversity of clinical trials is needed for many reasons, from improving the safety of new drugs to ensuring fairness. Read More Sponsor content by Wheel STAT E-Book: How technology is changing the face of medicine The 2022 STAT Health Tech Summit brought together the most prominent leaders working at the intersection of health and technology. Our latest e-book lays out the most pressing issues in health care that tech could help solve, the exciting new ideas to make that happen, and the barriers to pulling them off. The Morris ALS Principles: A model for empowering all disease communities By Irene Shapiro LM Otero/AP The Morris ALS Principles can serve as a guide for any disease community seeking to improve partnerships with its various stakeholders. Read More STAT+: How to close biopharma's data science and engineering skills gap By Sajith Wickramasekara Business Wire / AP Photo Biopharma companies are competing with tech giants to recruit data scientists and engineers. Here's how they can succeed. Read More The future of health care is here. When will it be everywhere? By Pratap Khedkar Yirmiyan Arthur/AP Photo Health care innovations grab headlines but won't benefit the millions who need them without collective action to deliver them at scale. Read More The FDA needs to get ready to evaluate synthetic cells, the next generation of therapeutics By Kira Sampson and Carlise Sorenson and Kate Adamala Jacquelyn Martin/AP Synthetic cells represent the next generation of therapies. The FDA needs to start developing a regulatory framework for them. Read More Demanding more impact from impact litigation: lessons to be learned from multi-state opioid settlements By Reuben Guttman and Liza Vertinsky Seth Wenig/AP The massive opioid-related settlements won by state Attorneys General should be industry-changing events. Secrecy will thwart that. Read More Clinician-administrator relationships are 'on life support.' Here's how to heal them By Christine Bechtel and Lois Frankel and Jennifer Sweeney Manu Fernandez/AP Health system and hospital leaders feel as isolated and frustrated as clinicians. Clinician-administrator relationships must be improved. Read More Value-based payment has produced little value. It needs a time-out By Kip Sullivan and Ana Malinow and Kay Tillow Adobe Billions of dollars have been spent on value-based payment programs that yielded little improvement in health or lower health care costs. Read More A better understanding of human diversity is needed to equitably advance precision medicine By David Reese and Kári Stefánsson Adobe Increasing genetic diversity in global databases and biobanks is essential to advancing the field of precision medicine. Read More Sunday, July 31, 2022       1 Exchange Pl, Suite 201, Boston, MA 02109 ©2022, All Rights Reserved. I no longer wish to receive STAT emails Update Email Preferences | Contact Us | View In Browser