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We’ve made it to Wednesday! How’s everyone holding up?
Some news out of Sweden: Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in developing the gene-editing technology CRISPR! As a young science reporter, CRISPR was one of the first new(er) discoveries that I got thoroughly obsessed with. Last year, Erin Brodwin had a good conversation with Doudna that I’ll be revisiting today.
And in presidential updates, President Donald Trump’s doctor said Tuesday that Trump reported “no symptoms” from his coronavirus infection. Stimulus talks are also up in the air.
Elsewhere in healthcare news: It's looking unlikely we'll have an approved vaccine before the election, Clover Health's ambitious growth plans rely on a new program, and the story of how Buoy Health got its first investors despite its founder's home burning down weeks earlier.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Trump's coronavirus vaccine czar is backing the FDA on safety standards that make a vaccine approval unlikely if not impossible before the election
- The man in charge of the Trump administration's efforts to aid the development of coronavirus vaccines told Business Insider he supports a decision to require two months of safety data before approving any COVID-19 vaccine.
- "I do think it is appropriate to set the threshold of safety follow-up," Moncef Slaoui, the scientific head of Operation Warp Speed, said in a Tuesday morning phone interview. "It's very important."
- That requirement will almost certainly prevent a vaccine from gaining emergency approval before the presidential election on November 3.
Read the full story from Andrew Dunn here>>
Clover Health
Clover Health laid out ambitious growth plans as part of its $3.7 billion deal, but they rely on an untested new Medicare experiment
- The Social Capital SPAC led by billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya is acquiring Clover Health in a $3.7 billion deal that'll take the health insurance company public.
- In 2021, Palihapitiya projects the company will grow its membership roughly five times what it was this year.
- Clover Health president and chief technology officer Andrew Toy said that projected growth largely comes from the potential participation in a new Medicare program that's yet to be finalized.
How the 33-year-old founder of Buoy Health raised his first investment wearing a T-shirt and jeans after his home burned down
- Dr. Andrew Le lost his home in a fire shortly before he pitched his company, Buoy Health, to investors.
- "I literally didn't have a place to live," Lee said. At the time, he was couch-surfing.
- Now, his health information company helps more than 9 million people, and he figured out how to get health insurers and employers to pay for it.
- Business Insider named Le one of its "30 under 40" leaders transforming healthcare.
Read the full story from Kimberly Leonard here>>
More stories we're reading:
- Meet the billionaire doctors behind Regeneron, the pharmaceutical company that developed Trump's experimental COVID-19 treatment (Business Insider)
- 5 things to know about Walmart's foray into health insurance (Becker's Hospital Review)
- Trump is taking dexamethasone, a steroid that can give patients a false sense of recovery followed by a crash (Business Insider)
- Trump's hospital stay and treatment highlights the inequalities in healthcare (Stat News)
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- Lydia