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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The $1.95 billion Operation Warp Speed contract excludes government rights to inventions or production know-how developed in the manufacture of the COVID-19 vaccine. -
The $1.6 billion Novavax contract is one of several Operation Warp Speed agreements issued through a third party, Advanced Technology International, and that hadn't been released.
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Newly released COVID-19 vaccine contracts include weakened protections against potential price gouging. Several key federal contracts still haven't been disclosed by the government.
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To boost the supply of Regeneron's antibody therapy for COVID-19, the federal government entered into a $450 million supply contract. Details of the deal show some safeguards are missing.
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Drug industry veteran Moncef Slaoui is a key figure in Operation Warp Speed's push to develop COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines. His employment terms raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
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Most of the federal contracts with companies involved in the crash program to make COVID-19 vaccines haven't been made public. The lack of disclosure raises questions about accountability.
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A panel of doctor and scientists raised questions about the expedited regulatory path the Food and Drug Administration is considering for COVID-19 vaccines.
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A milestone in the development of COVID-19 vaccines will take place Thursday when the Food and Drug Administration will ask a panel of experts for advice on how to evaluate the vaccines.
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The development of a coronavirus vaccine is nearing the finish, but there have been stumbles. NPR discusses the pause in Johnson & Johnson's trial and the testing stages of other vaccines.
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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.
