The inside story of how data integrity issues roiled a biotech seen as 'Moderna 2.0'

For Laronde, which was founded by Flagship Pioneering — the ambitious startup-creating engine that bankrolled Moderna and countless other biotechs — the episode has highlighted how easy it can be to get carried away with the promise of new therapies, despite signs of trouble. Read more.

By Allison DeAngelis — STAT and Ryan Cross — The Boston Globe

MIT

Muzzled for years, vindicated MIT professor says fraud investigation into his lab did lasting damage

For three years, nine months, and one week, MIT professor Ram Sasisekharan lived under a gag order. Now he's speaking out. "The feeling was that we were guilty of something until we were proven innocent," Sasisekharan said in an interview with STAT. "There were times I would wake up wondering if it had all been a nightmare." Read more.

By Damian Garde

Nora Williams for STAT

Transplant patients say new Medicare guidance puts their donated organs at risk

Margaret Gamble (above) was supposed to receive a blood test in the mail in May. It's a regularly scheduled test to check if her kidney — the second she's received in a transplant — has been damaged in any way. But Gamble's test never came. Her doctor told her there's been a billing issue with her Medicare insurance, and so now she's waiting, not knowing how her kidney is doing and if she could be in danger of losing it. Read more.

By Elaine Chen

More great reads from STAT this week

Mandy Cohen, seen as next CDC director, would bring political chops to an agency lacking them
Biogen's boardroom scandal saddles CEO with first crisis
Why it won't be so easy for medicine to displace BMI
Opinion: What happens when patients beat their doctors to their test results
Suicide hotlines promise anonymity. Dozens of their websites send sensitive data to Facebook
Fed up with exorbitant health costs, employers and workers are taking insurers to court
Listen: Physicians have a moral and professional obligation to get into 'good trouble'