biotech
A temperature check on gene therapy
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
It’s been a tough few years in the gene therapy field. As the biotech industry broadly experienced a post-pandemic downturn, sentiment turned specifically against cell and gene therapies. Under the Trump administration, drug rejections and decision reversals at the FDA further destabilized the industry’s already shaky footing. Vinay Prasad, the agency’s top drug regulator, left the agency last week — a move that was seen as a reason for optimism by some scientists at a gene therapy conference held last week in Italy.
While many in the industry hope to see a friendlier replacement for Prasad, worries about ongoing turmoil at the FDA cropped up numerous times at the conference, despite the 4,500 miles separating Rome from Silver Springs, Maryland. Read more from STAT’s Andrew Joseph, who attended the gathering, on what’s top of mind for the global gene therapy field.
public health
Staffing problems at the 988 lifeline
After 988 launched, suicide deaths among adolescents and young adults dropped significantly compared to projected rates. It’s a promising sign for the national suicide and crisis line’s new, shortened phone number. But 71% of call center leaders around the country report that they’re understaffed, and 89% report difficulty acquiring the funds to hire more people, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers surveyed leaders at 159 out of 206 total call centers that operate the line. About 60% of the centers allowed remote work either full-time or on a hybrid schedule. Those leaders were more likely to report difficulty with funding for staff, but less likely to report trouble recruiting workers. Underscoring all of this are questions around long-term funding for the lifeline at the state and national level. More on that here.
neurotransmissions
‘Nancy is alive, but in a sense, she is also dead’
That’s one way that neurologist Jason Karlawish describes a phenomenon called ambiguous loss. For the spouses of people with dementia, it can be difficult to understand how their loved one is experiencing the world, impaired by memory, language, and other barriers. Nancy is a dementia patient who doesn’t recognize her own husband, Brian. But even before her disease was that advanced, there was still a level of ambiguous loss. “I’m the activities director on the cruise ship Nancy,” Brian once said.
Read Jason’s latest column on the grief of watching one’s spouse become a stranger, along with what sort of structural changes are needed to address it.
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