Cancer risk, Elizabeth Holmes, CRISPR

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“Why is everyone obsessed with food in these boxes????” That’s what my editor messaged to me on Slack when she saw my blue box note for yesterday about San Francisco ice cream. My only explanation is that STAT reporters tend to work so hard, we build up big appetites! No wonder we’re left to think about breakfast sandwiches, chips, french fries, burgers, ice cream … Sorry, what were we talking about? (Feed a STAT reporter today with a subscription.)

Burning questions on the aggressive but vague drug pricing order

President Trump’s executive order to lower drug prices was long on messaging but short on details. Consultant Brian Reed said it “has the feel of a Truth Social post in the form of an executive order.” Still, the order offers a sense of Trump’s commitment to the issue and offers a hint of what might be ahead, depending on how the administration fills in the gaps. 

STAT’s Daniel Payne and Ed Silverman wrote about the most important open questions left to answer: Which authorities will the administration use to lower prices? Will congressional action be needed? How will Medicare policy be involved? Read more on what industry leaders and regulatory lawyers told them.

19 million

That’s about how many children in the U.S. live in a household with at least one parent with a substance use disorder, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics. That’s mostly parents with alcohol use disorder, followed by cannabis, prescription-related, then other drug use disorders. About six million kids live with a parent who has both a substance use disorder and major depressive disorder or serious psychological distress. Read STAT’s addiction coverage. 

The legal saga over the invention of CRISPR just got interesting

Let’s go back to 2012 for a moment. In May of that year, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, filed its first patent application in the U.S. for CRISPR-Cas9. In December, a different team at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard filed their own — and paid to expedite the process. The Broad team got the patent. Thirteen years later, the legal battle over who truly deserves the patent is still playing out, and we received an unexpected update yesterday when a federal appeals court sided with the Berkeley team in challenging a 2022 decision from the U.S. Patent Office.

The move could not only have implications for CRISPR patent rights, but potentially redefine how the law determines when an invention has been made. “If you had told me back then that this case would revisit conception I would have said that is the [expletive] craziest thing I could imagine to come from this,” law professor Jacob Sherkow told STAT’s Megan Molteni. Read more from Megan on the new development.

How energy drinks got a makeover

You don’t need to look further than a can of Alani Nu (center stage in the above illustration) to see that the $22 billion energy drink industry has gotten a makeover. Long dominated by labels like Monster and Red Bull that use extreme sports swagger to appeal to young men, the industry is tapping into the aesthetics of health and wellness to reach new demographics and continue its exponential growth. 

But it’s not just aesthetics. Many of the newer brands tout “better for you ingredients,” STAT’s Sarah Todd reports, from biotin to lion’s mane mushrooms. Despite the magical powers one might assume “lion’s mane mushrooms” have, many energy drinks still contain supercharged doses of caffeine that are particularly risky for children, teenagers, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people with underlying heart conditions. Health experts say the new wellness-themed marketing may be worsening consumer confusion over the risks. Read more from Sarah. 

Study shows testosterone does not increase cancer risk for trans people

Trans people who use testosterone are not at a higher risk of gynecological cancers compared to cisgender women for at least the first few years using the hormone, according to a large study out of Amsterdam published yesterday in eClinicalMedicine. While experts haven’t historically had major concerns about a link here, there also hasn’t been much long-term research on the potential connection. The data comes just a few weeks after HHS released its report on gender dysphoria, declaring existing evidence for gender-affirming care for youth to be insufficient. (The American Academy of Pediatrics immediately rebuked that report.)

In the study, researchers analyzed medical records for all trans patients assigned female at birth who visited one medical center between 1972 and 2018. That was almost 2,000 patients total, making it the largest study to date looking at gynecological tissue of trans folks using testosterone, the authors wrote. People used testosterone at the clinic for five years on average. 

Nobody in the study was diagnosed with cancer in their uterus, ovaries, vagina, or vulva. Still, even longer-term research is needed, the authors added, especially for people who choose not to have their reproductive organs removed in surgery.

Elizabeth Holmes rises again — well, her partner does

Elizabeth Holmes is serving an 11-year prison sentence for misleading investors and is barred from participating in federal health programs for 90 years. But somehow, her dream of a diagnostic testing revolution is once again the talk of health care. The emergence of Haemanthus, a company formed by Holmes’ partner, Billy Evans, triggered a mix of shock, anger, and rueful skepticism yesterday.

“It’s kind of astonishing to see someone so close to that previous debacle trying to launch something so similar,” Vikas Saini, president of nonpartisan think tank the Lown Institute, told STAT. “I guess people are always striving in this country.” Read more from Casey Ross and Jonathan Wosen on how people in the health space are reacting to the news.

What we’re reading

• Medicaid payments barely keep hospital mental health units afloat. Federal cuts could sink them, KFF Health News

• The EPA will likely gut team that studies health risks from chemicals, WIRED

• Opinion: Why Casey Means could be the right pick for surgeon general, STAT
• My mother’s traumatic brain injury stole my childhood, The Cut
• OpenAI leaps into health care with AI benchmark to evaluate models, STAT