Sydney Lupkin
Sydney Lupkin is the pharmaceuticals correspondent for NPR.
She was most recently a correspondent at Kaiser Health News, where she covered drug prices and specialized in data reporting for its enterprise team. She's reported on how tainted drugs can reach consumers, how companies take advantage of rare disease drug rules and how FDA-approved generics often don't make it to market. She's also tracked pharmaceutical dollars to patient advocacy groups and members of Congress. Her work has won the National Press Club's Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award, the National Institute for Health Care Management's Digital Media Award and a health reporting award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.
Lupkin graduated from Boston University. She's also worked for ABC News, VICE News, MedPage Today and The Bay Citizen. Her internship and part-time work includes stints at ProPublica, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The New England Center for Investigative Reporting and WCVB.
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The Food and Drug Administration is working on a playbook for how it could greenlight vaccine tweaks. Studies in hundreds of people, rather than tens of thousands, seem likely.
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The two companies producing COVID-19 vaccines for use in the United States will have to raise production to meet contractual goals of 100 million doses each by the end of March.
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The two companies making COVID-19 vaccines each promised to deliver 100 million doses to the federal government by the end of March. So far, they appear to be running behind.
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A federal manufacturing contract to increase COVID-19 vaccine production has an unusual clause that could move a company's employees and their families to the front of the vaccination line.
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Despite being founded a decade ago, Moderna has never had a product make it to market. And the company registered its first factory with the Food and Drug Administration just this week.
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A Pfizer board member says the government declined to buy more doses beyond the initial 100 million already agreed upon. Demand from other countries could complicate future purchases.
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Newly released COVID-19 vaccine contracts include weakened protections against potential price gouging. Several key federal contracts still haven't been disclosed by the government.
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Drug industry veteran Moncef Slaoui is a key figure in Operation Warp Speed's push to develop COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines. His employment terms raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
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Most of the federal contracts with companies involved in the crash program to make COVID-19 vaccines haven't been made public. The lack of disclosure raises questions about accountability.
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A milestone in the development of COVID-19 vaccines will take place Thursday when the Food and Drug Administration will ask a panel of experts for advice on how to evaluate the vaccines.