Vinay Prasad's fall, HIV vaccine progress, & a mouse study

Plus: A new library to help make better vaccines

July 31, 2025 Check out STAT+

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By Theresa Gaffney Morning Rounds Writer and Podcast Producer

Good morning. Early this week, the FTC called for public comment on gender-affirming care for minors. Almost 1,000 submissions were posted the last time I looked. It's not easy to comb through it all, but a sizable number seem to be expressing anger at what one comment called a "thinly veiled attack on trans people." A few weeks ago, I covered an FTC panel where some speakers pulled the veil down. Re-visit the story for context.

exclusive Inside the fall of Vinay Prasad Photo illustration Alex Hogan/STAT It's unclear what exactly led to the sudden departure of Vinay Prasad from his role as a top FDA official. But in her latest story, STAT's Lizzy Lawrence pulls together all the clues, from his history courting controversy as an online critic of the medical mainstream to the way that far-right influencer Laura Loomer has relentlessly targeted Prasad online in recent weeks, calling for him to be fired and criticizing his apparent support for Bernie Sanders. Prasad's departure may outline the political limits of medical skepticism in the Republican party, at least when it comes to rare diseases, Lizzy writes. It's also an example of what happens when the director of a major center at FDA, typically a longtime career civil servant, more closely resembles a political appointee.  Read the story. And in a new column, STAT's Matt Herper argues that while Prasad's three-month tenure at the FDA was bad for medicine, his forced departure is likely worse. Looking ahead, the agency's top drug regulator George Tidmarsh will take over some of Prasad's responsibilities, Lizzy exclusively reported yesterday.  Meanwhile, at the White House, biosecurity expert Gerald Parker has resigned after roughly six months from his role as the head of its Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy — though it turns out he was never actually formally appointed in the first place. Where does that leave us? "There is no state of coordinated national preparedness," a former Biden administration biosecurity official said to STAT contributor Katherine Eban. "We are flying blind." Read more from Katherine on what we're flying toward. science Scientists make progress in the long search for an HIV vaccine In the decades-long push to develop an HIV vaccine, researchers reported yesterday that they've managed to circumvent one particularly stubborn challenge. While developing a messenger RNA-based vaccine, the researchers found that the key was to make it hide a key protein complex that usually pokes out of the surface of the virus, because that complex usually conceals a region that distracts the immune system from mounting a protective response. Only 4% of study participants given a vaccine that exposed this part of the viral surface produced antibodies that could block infection; that jumped to 80% when the distracting region wasn't visible to the immune system. The study authors note that this is the first time an HIV vaccine candidate has sparked antibodies that can neutralize infection in a large percentage of subjects. But don't get ahead of yourself just yet — there's more work to be done to reach the broad protective power that any successful vaccine would need. Read more from STAT's Jonathan Wosen on the science and what comes next.

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science How respiratory diseases could influence cancer For somebody who is in remission from breast cancer, a respiratory infection like the flu or Covid-19 could trigger a relapse where cancer cells metastasize, according to a mouse study published yesterday in Nature. In mice, the researchers found that both flu and SARS-CoV-2 infections triggered changes in the physical and biochemical characteristics (phenotype if you know) of breast cancer cells. That led to the proliferation of the cancer cells through a mouse body within days of the respiratory infection, and "a massive expansion of carcinoma cells into metastatic lesions" in two weeks. It's just mouse data, yes. But the general idea is at least partly backed by observational data in humans. The team also analyzed data on survivors of any cancer in the UK biobank, along with breast cancer survivors in Flatiron Health databases. They found that a SARS-CoV-2 infection was substantially associated with a higher risk of lung metastasis and of dying from cancer as compared to survivors who weren't infected. public health A new library to help make better vaccines In other vaccine news: Companies working on new vaccines that need some help boosting the immune response they generate will soon be able to draw from a new library of compounds that can play that role. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, better known as CEPI, has funded development of a library of 25 vaccine adjuvants that can be used in the production of new vaccines to protect against dangerous pathogens. The adjuvants are being shared by research institutes and medical companies around the world. Adjuvants play a crucial role in the effectiveness of certain vaccines, but their availability is often constrained, leading manufacturers to use what is available rather than what would work best with a particular vaccine. Under this plan, approved manufacturers will be able to request access to up to five adjuvants; tests will be run to see which works best with the candidate vaccine. The library will be hosted by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Nicola Rose, MHRA's interim executive director for science and research, said the approach "will help speed up the development of more effective vaccines — particularly at the early stages of an emerging health threat." — Helen Branswell

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What we're reading The dangerous logic of CTE self-diagnosis, Atlantic Stronger than fentanyl: A drug you've never heard of is killing hundreds every year, Wall Street Journal Video: STAT breaks down the confusing, heartbreaking Sarepta saga, STAT (Note: the link will work this time! Sorry about yesterday!) Why certain medications can increase your risk in the heat, NPR The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program needs to be updated, not eliminated, STAT

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Thanks for reading! More next time,

theresa.gaffney@statnews.com

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