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 two companies making COVID-19 vaccines each promised to deliver 100 million doses to the federal government by the end of March. So far, they appear to be running behind.
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The COVID-19 vaccine rollout faces another bottleneck: Pfizer and Moderna may be unable to fulfill contractual promises to deliver 100 million doses a piece to the federal government by March 31.
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The drugmakers will add an additional 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the number that they are already supplying the government. They expect to deliver all the doses by July 31.
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Despite being founded a decade ago, Moderna has never had a product make it to market. And the company registered its first factory with the Food and Drug Administration just this week.
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A Pfizer board member says the government declined to buy more doses beyond the initial 100 million already agreed upon. Demand from other countries could complicate future purchases.
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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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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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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.
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The requirements laid out by the Food and Drug Administration in advice for drugmakers underscore why it's unlikely a vaccine could clear the agency before Election Day.