Sarah Jane Tribble - Kaiser Health News

Lore Wilkinson’s medication for her rare muscle disease used to cost so little she paid for it without using insurance, but her most recent bill shows her insurer paid about $40,000 for a month’s supply. Wilkinson and many others with rare diseases across the country are getting caught in the crossfire of an ongoing legal debate over orphan drugs.

A bitter battle over the ‘orphan drug’ program leaves patients’ pocketbooks at risk

Patients who depend upon special drugs to treat rare diseases are caught in the crossfire as drugmakers and the FDA battle over regulations that reward companies for developing treatments for relatively small pools of patients.

Politics / Issues

The system feds rely on to stop repeat health fraud is broken, a KHN investigation shows

Sarah Jane Tribble - Kaiser Health News

A months-long examination found gaping holes and expansive gray areas through which banned individuals slip to repeatedly bilk Medicaid, Medicare and other taxpayer-funded federal programs.

A vial of the Phase 3 Novavax coronavirus vaccine prepared for use in a trial at St. George's University hospital in London, Oct. 7, 2020.

Economy / Business

Novavax missed its global moonshot but is angling to win over mRNA defectors

Arthur Allen - Kaiser Health News

After years of failure, the Maryland company aims to attract the vaccine-hesitant with an alternative to mRNA shots. But will it find a market?