Dairy farmers are running out of chances to kill the terms 'oat milk' and 'soy milk'

Dairy farmers and their advocates for years have tried everything to convince regulators companies like Silk and Oatly shouldn't be able to slap "the m word" on their products. State legislators from Oklahoma and North Carolina to Virginia and Maryland have introduced bills banning these products from being called milk. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) has even walked around grocery stores placing "This is not milk" sticky notes on cartons of plant-based drinks, he told STAT.

For dairy advocates, the issue is simple. Milk comes from a lactating mammal, and as former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb once said, "an almond doesn't lactate." Now, the dairy industry's one last shot to change the labeling of these products likely rests with a massive upcoming agriculture bill.

By Nicholas Florko

Marian F. Moratinos for STAT

The Ozempic revolution is rooted in the work of Svetlana Mojsov, yet she's been edged out of the story

As diabetes and obesity treatments based on GLP-1 biology have gone from backwater to blockbuster, Svetlana Mojsov has been left out of virtually all public recognition, even though she conceptualized and proved the structure of the active GLP-1 hormone and then helped show that it triggers insulin secretion — a key finding that paved the way for drugs to be developed. Now in her early 70s, Mojsov said she just doesn't want to be forgotten. Read the full story here.

By Elaine Chen and Megan Molteni

Constanza Hevia for STAT

She got off dialysis. Her doctor thinks others with acute kidney injury can too

Melissa Lawson was told her kidneys would heal. But they didn't; dialysis became a regular routine until she met Chi-yuan Hsu, UCSF's chief of nephrology. Hsu was looking to study patients who might be successfully weaned from dialysis. He believed many patients with acute kidney injury like Lawson stayed on dialysis for longer than they needed. Lawson eagerly signed on, ready to try anything that might help her get her life back.

By Usha Lee McFarling

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Most drug companies still do not publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions, despite being major contributors to climate change. A STAT analysis shows how top companies are starting to take action on climate.
Just how much money do drugmakers gain from patent extensions? Extending patent protection doesn't just stretch a drug's profits — it can lead to its most significant revenue period, a new study finds.
As part of cost cuts, Biogen shuttered its digital health group and is ending a clinical trial being conducted with Apple early, STAT exclusively reported earlier this week.
Women face host of disadvantages in cancer prevention and care, report finds. Ophira Ginsburg, a senior adviser at the National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health, explains it's "because of access to knowledge, who is the locus of decision-making in the family, and access on the financial domain as well. Patriarchy dominates every aspect of these issues."