Pfizer’s activist troubles, gene therapy questions, RFK Jr.’s MAHA ambitions

October 25, 2024

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Will an activist investor campaign against Pfizer lead to big changes at the struggling Pharma giant? What's the difference between Novo Holdings and Novo Nordisk? And what lies ahead for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement?

We talk about all that and more on this week's episode of "The Readout LOUD," STAT's biotech podcast. In our "Chatty Cathy" segment, we mull over Starboard Value's criticisms of Pfizer and what changes, including the replacement of CEO Albert Bourla, might lie ahead. We also discuss the impact that Pfizer's failed gene therapy in Duchenne may have on other companies developing next-generation treatments, and noodle over Novo Holdings' controversial plan to acquire Catalent, one of the world's largest contract drug manufacturers.

In our second segment, STAT D.C. reporter Sarah Owermohle joins us to discuss Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the impact that his ascension into the Trump orbit has had on the Republican health care policy agenda.

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For more on Kennedy and the Republican health care agenda, look here and here. A deeper dive into questions about shifting standards for Duchenne gene therapy can be read here. A look at the Novo Holdings-Catalent deal can be found here.