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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House subcommittee members questioned why Emergent BioSoultions awarded bonuses to executives despite quality problems than hindered production of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine.
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A dip of 86% in doses to be distributed to states follows a surge that occurred after one of J&J's third party manufacturers was finally able to release a stockpile.
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Moncef Slaoui, who helped lead Operation Warp Speed under the Trump administration, was removed from a medical device startup's board over allegations of sexual harassment.
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A 1950 law allows the government to award contracts that take priority over all others for national defense. During the pandemic, the law has been used to defend the country against the coronavirus.
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Pfizer and Moderna each agreed to supply 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. by the end of March. With just under three weeks left, both companies have their work cut out for them.
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Merck traditionally has been a leader in vaccines but has not had success with a COVID-19 vaccine. It's lending a hand to Johnson & Johnson, where production is running significantly behind schedule.
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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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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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Members of Congress and advocacy groups say Operation Warp Speed should release its contracts with vaccine makers after NPR reporting found the terms of many aren't public.
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More than $6 billion in federal funding has been routed through a firm that manages defense contracts, making the agreements subject to less federal scrutiny and transparency.