Internal documents on India’s Covid-19 vaccine raise troubling questions

(MAHESH KUMAR A./AP)

We’re all familiar with Operation Warp Speed and the sprint to create Covid-19 vaccines. As the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the world two years ago, one of India’s leading biotech companies was also racing to develop a vaccine, with crucial backing from the Indian government. Beyond meeting an urgent medical need, the home-grown shot engineered by Bharat Biotech was an important effort to bolster the fortunes of the Indian pharmaceutical industry.

In reviewing documents that detail steps taken toward government approval, STAT’s Ed Silverman found that regulators endorsed the vaccine, called Covaxin (shown above), despite discrepancies in the number of clinical trial participants and questionable changes made to the trial protocols. Bharat Biotech executives acknowledged some mistakes but mentioned “political” pressure. Read more.

As University of California workers strike, what's next for academic life sciences?

Roughly 48,000 graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other academic workers at 10 University of California campuses went on strike yesterday, demanding better wages, child care support, and other benefits. Their statewide strike revolves around many of the same issues sending life science researchers out of academia altogether. STAT’s Jonathan Wosen wrote about that seismic shift in a recent special report, citing growth in private industry as a gravitational force driving the mass exodus out of academia and into lucrative industry jobs.

There are looming questions, including whether all this is a bad thing. Also, will there be a shortage of Ph.D. students like the current dearth of postdocs? And what will make the difference between staying or going? “Money is hardly the only issue,” Jonathan writes. Read more.

Brains of Black Americans age faster, study finds, with 'weathering' likely to blame

The brains of Black adults in the U.S. age more quickly than those of white and Hispanic adults, showing features linked to Alzheimer's and other dementias as early as mid-life, according to a new study in JAMA Neurology. The analysis of MRI scans found that Black adults — on average, in their mid-50s — were more likely than white or Hispanic adults of the same age to have a higher prevalence of white matter lesions, markers of cerebrovascular disease that are associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

The new research strengthens the case that vascular disease may be especially detrimental to brain health in Black populations, and earlier in life than previously thought. The differences are unlikely to be genetic, the scientists said, hypothesizing that early brain aging in Black participants may be linked to weathering — the accumulation of racial stressors over time. STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling has more.

Closer look: Buying FDA-banned vapes and other products — in its backyard

(alex hogan/stat)

When STAT’s Nicholas Florko (above) tried to buy vapes and medicines being sold illegally, it wasn’t that hard to do at gas stations and convenience stores — even in the FDA’s backyard, defined as within a 6-mile radius of the agency’s suburban Maryland campus. Some of the products are dangerous, such as an unapproved cough medicine linked to children's deaths. Others, like CBD gummies and vapes, have become ubiquitous but are still illegal.

It’s a struggle to enforce rules against sales of illegal and potentially dangerous products that are so easy to find and buy, some former FDA officials say. “The agency is under-resourced and cannot remotely keep up with the number and variety of products on the market,” Peter Lurie, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former FDA official, told Nick. The FDA declined to comment. Read and watch more here.

More than 1 in 10 women develop new high blood pressure in year after childbirth

Maternal mortality is one of the most striking health inequities for which no solution has been found. A new study in Hypertension examines one factor — high blood pressure — that is among the cardiovascular conditions underlying most severe illnesses after childbirth. The observational cohort study in one safety-net hospital examined blood pressure readings of more than 2,400 women without high blood pressure while pregnant.

More than 1 in 10 women developed hypertension in the first year after giving birth, the analysis of health records showed, and more than 1 in 5 of that group had their elevated blood pressure detected more than 6 weeks after delivery, which is when postpartum care typically ends. Cigarette smoking, being age 35 or older, or having a cesarean delivery were associated with a 29% higher risk of new high blood pressure. For Black women with all three risk factors, that rose to 36%.

Few smokers are being screened for lung cancer

While a growing share of lung cancer is showing up in people who never smoked, the American Lung Association urges the 14.2 million Americans with a history of smoking to take advantage of CT screening recommended since 2013. Eligibility means age 50 to 80, a 20 pack-year history, and currently smoking or having quit within the last 15 years. Only 5.8% of those eligible were screened last year, the association's new report says.

Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths, despite an overall survival rate that has risen to 25% over the last five years but remains at 20% for Black, Latino, Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders, or American Indians/Alaska Natives. Lung cancer diagnosis at an early stage sits at 26% overall, with people of color 13% to 16% less likely than white people to be diagnosed early.

What we're reading

Her child was stillborn at 39 weeks. She blames a system that doesn’t always listen to mothers, ProPublica
Immunogen wins FDA approval for targeted medicine to treat advanced ovarian cancer, STAT
How meth worsened the fentanyl crisis. ‘We are in a different world,’ Wall Street Journal
Roche’s experimental Alzheimer’s treatment fails to slow cognitive decline across two clinical trials, STAT
The $6 billion shot at making new antibiotics — before the old ones fail, Wired
Moderna data suggest new Covid booster is more effective against Omicron variants, STAT