Internal document shows how UnitedHealth executives prepared to tamp down investor unrest

The document drafted in advance of UnitedHealth Group's shareholder meeting this week reveals how the company's leadership sought to downplay complaints about its business practices and assure jittery investors that it will soon return to maximum profitability. The memo was mistakenly sent by a UnitedHealth spokesperson to a STAT reporter who emailed the company with questions for a different story. Read more.

By Casey Ross, Tara Bannow, and Bob Herman

Photo illustration: Christine Kao/STAT; Photos: Alex Brandon/AP

The shrewd startup founder who led DOGE's cost-cutting at HHS

The relentless drumbeat of cuts to government research and disease prevention have devastated tens of thousands of affected workers and academics. To hear them tell it, today's children and grandchildren will live shorter lives and the brightest scientists will flee the U.S. There's one man at the center of it all and, chances are, you haven't even heard of him. Read more.

By Tara Bannow

Molly Ferguson for STAT

A cautious culture cost Novo Nordisk its lead in the obesity drug race, former employees say

Former Novo Nordisk employees say the company's overly conservative approach to obesity drugs may explain why, even though Novo was the first to sell a new generation of obesity drugs, it's now widely seen as trailing Lilly in a market that some predict could balloon to over $100 billion by the end of the decade. Read more.

By Elaine Chen

More great reads from STAT this week

mRNA, once lauded as a scientific marvel, is now a government target
Rewriting of Covid vaccine recommendations has doctors and other experts worried
The U.S. slashed HIV/AIDS funding. Here is how countries that relied on it might adapt
These blood tests for cancer are increasingly popular. Experts still aren't sure how best to use them
Opinion: Do you remember the Human Genome Project? I'm not sure the Trump administration wants you to