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 Senate HELP committee questioned pharmaceutical CEOs about how much more Americans pay for the same drugs sold for less in Canada, Japan and Europe. -
Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
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Spoiler: There are some decreases this year, too. Here's an overview of the changing prices and what to make of them. -
January is when drug makers typically hike their prices. This year, there's a mixed bag of price increases and a few notable declines, such as on some forms of insulin.
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The Food and Drug Administration's authorization of Florida's plan to import prescription medicines from Canada is a first. But the state still has hurdles to clear before imports could begin. -
A popular asthma inhaler is being discontinued. Although there is a generic version, the switch could lead to disruptions in care because not all insurance companies are covering it.
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Hospitals rely on scores of generic drugs given by injection. But these workhorses are often in short supply. Cheap prices have led to factory closures that leave the supply chain vulnerable. -
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will review a lower court decision that would make mifepristone, the commonly used abortion pill, less accessible.
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To lower drug prices, the Biden administration is looking to assert its authority to license drug patents that rely on government-funded research to drugmakers that would offer cheaper medicines. -
The National Institutes of Health has been reluctant to use its leverage as a biomedical research funder to influence drug pricing. Sen. Bernie Sanders is pressing NIH's new director to take action.
