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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More than 70 drugs approved by the FDA from 2001 to 2010 ran into safety concerns that prompted withdrawals from the market, "black box" warnings or other actions. -
Amid an uproar over soaring drug prices, three GOP senators are seeking an investigation into whether the Orphan Drug Act is being manipulated to jack up the cost of medications for rare diseases. -
Many Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients in the U.S. have imported a medicine called deflazacort for about $1,200 a year. A brand-name version just approved for sale in America costs $89,000. -
A half-dozen senators involved in confirmation hearings for Rep. Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services have health care investments made by themselves or family members. -
Three decades ago, Congress set up a system to encourage drug companies to develop treatments for rare diseases. The law has worked, but at a high cost.
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Drugmakers have brought almost 450 orphan drugs to market and collected rich incentives by doing so. But nearly a third of the medicines aren't new or were repurposed many times for financial gain.
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Congress has approved sweeping legislation that would reshape how the Food and Drug Administration reviews new products and bolster National Institutes of Health funding. What's at stake? -
More than 1,455 lobbyists weighed in on the 21st Century Cures Act in this congressional cycle. Only one health bill since 2011 has garnered more attention. -
About 27 percent of Food and Drug Administration reviewers who approved hematology-oncology drugs from 2001 through 2010 left to work for the industry they previously regulated, an analysis found. -
Four years after user fees were imposed to speed up the review of generic drug applications by the Food and Drug Administration, more than 4,000 generics remain in limbo.
