Listen: Sarepta’s pivotal moment, biotech’s big week, & the future of Covid boosters

How can you be sure a gene therapy is working? What does $11 billion get you in biotech? And who decides which medicines get approved?

We cover all that and more this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. Our colleague Helen Branswell joins us to explain the latest news on Covid-19 boosters and the implications of a Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea. Then we dive into the long history of a gene therapy from Sarepta Therapeutics, a polarizing medicine that promises to change the lives of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We also break down the rest of the week’s biggest news in biopharma, including some billion-dollar deals and the retirement of perhaps the most storied executive in the business.

For more on what we cover, here’s the Sarepta story; here’s the latest on boosters; here’s more on Marburg; here’s the news on Merck and GSK; here’s where you can find episodes of Color Code; and here’s where you can subscribe to the First Opinion Podcast.

Be sure to sign up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you have any feedback for us — topics to cover, guests to invite, vocal tics to cease — you can email [email protected].