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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Appointments with health professionals for obesity drug consultations are way up, according to data from Zocdoc, a provider of scheduling services.
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The Biden administration is looking to extend Medicare and Medicaid coverage to include obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. Weight loss drugs are now excluded from mandatory coverage.
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The pharmaceutical companies behind Ozempic, Wegovy and other weight-loss meds push to prevent compounding pharmacies from making cheaper copies. They argue they can keep up with demand on their own. -
IV fluids used in hospitals remain in short supply, after Hurricane Helene shut down a key North Carolina factory. The closure has hospitals scrambling to stretch supplies and prioritize care. -
When Hurricane Helene took out a factory making 60% of the country's IV fluids, it caused shortages that have led to canceled surgeries. A look at the effects and prospects for improvement.
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The Biden Administration has proposed a rule to require private health insurance to cover over-the-counter birth control pills, spermicide, condoms and plan B.
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After Hurricane Helene flooded an IV fluid factory in North Carolina, the government and industry are trying to mitigate shortages. -
A survey of employers finds that only about a fifth of large companies cover drugs like Wegovy for weight loss. A majority of companies that do cover the medicines have requirements.
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Remnants of Hurricane Helene shut down a North Carolina factory that supplies critical IV fluids to hospitals across the country. There's no timeline for when production will resume at the facility. -
A factory that makes IV fluids was shut down by damage from the remnants of Hurricane Helene that ripped through North Carolina. The facility could be down for months and could lead to shortages.
