A new wave of illegal fruity vapes?

Sarah Todd/STAT

STAT’s Sarah Todd was at a gas station in Ohio when she saw the advertisement for new flavors of Vuse Pro vapes: peach, berry, watermelon, and fresh mint. Companies aren’t allowed to sell new nicotine and tobacco products in the U.S. until they’ve been authorized by the FDA — but these products haven’t been. What’s the deal?

Sarah explains in her latest story: Some critics have said that the FDA basically invited companies to start breaking the law after softening its enforcement guidance earlier this year, according to some critics. And now that one major player in the industry has put unauthorized products on the market, it could spur other big manufacturers to do the same. Read more on what the impact could be.

health

A small but skyrocketing number of kids on GLP-1s

From 2019 to mid-2026, the number of children ages 8 to 11 without diabetes who are prescribed GLP-1 weight loss medications increased from 0.3% to 9.3%, according to a study published Friday in Pediatrics. That’s a 310-fold increase.

Researchers calculated prescribing rates by analyzing Epic data from across health systems. Among more than 3.5 million kids with obesity over those years, about 20,200 total received prescriptions. Most of the kids who were prescribed these meds had “severe obesity.” Girls were more likely than boys to receive a prescription, as were older kids and those living in wealthier communities.

cancer

An administrative gap delays access to new treatment

When the FDA approves a new drug, it’s supposed to make it easier for patients to access. But in the weeks immediately after approval, there’s a gap where the opposite happens: Early access programs — often called compassionate use — are immediately closed after a drug has been approved, but commercial insurance coverage often isn’t available for weeks as payers work through the technical steps required to start coverage.

Kelsey Solano and her husband Juan were in the middle of finishing paperwork to join Revolution Medicine’s early access program for its new pancreatic cancer drug when it received FDA approval. “He was considered an urgent request because his clinical status was really starting to change,” Kelsey told STAT’s Angus Chen. Without coverage, she had to set up a GoFundMe and raise her credit limit to get one week’s worth of the drug. Read more about the maddening limbo some patients have found themselves in while trying to get the first major pancreatic cancer breakthrough in decades.

special report

Can dealmaking save rural hospitals?

Rita Harper for STAT

Ahead of President Trump’s unprecedented Medicaid cuts — and the shortfall in federal funding that’s expected to come with them — rural hospitals are looking to cushion the blow by partnering with bigger, more stable health systems. Since the passage of the tax bill last year, the number of merger and acquisition deal announcements has been ticking up, STAT’s Daniel Payne reports.

And “for every deal that’s been announced, there are scores being talked about,” said Greg Maddrey, president of Chartis, a consulting group that works with hospitals. “There’s a lot going on under the surface.” Rural hospitals may be seeking out these deals, but lawmakers are skeptical. Research has shown that hospital prices go up in the years after a merger, and policymakers across parties have pushed for more regulation. Can hospital systems ensure that their doors stay open without falling into anticompetitive practices? Read more in the third installment of Unraveled.

one big number

1.66 million

That’s how many people died across the world in 2023 as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke, according to an analysis published yesterday in The Lancet Public Health. Overall, 2.71 billion people were exposed to secondhand smoke that year.

While the proportion of people exposed has decreased since 1990, the absolute number has stayed steady due to the rising global population, per the paper. And in some places, exposure rates are increasing: Exposure nearly doubled in sub-Saharan Africa in that time, and increased substantially in North Africa and the Middle East.

first opinion

What it’s like to be a fat medical student

The anti-fat bias of the medical community is very well-documented. Even still, medical student Jessica Rosenblum was shocked by the way that doctors and trainees talked about fat people in front of her, a fat person.

“Sometimes, it feels like my identity as a medical student is a magic cloak obscuring my identity as a fat woman,” Rosenblum writes in a First Opinion essay. Other times, her fatness was all another person could see. Read more about her experience — which she describes as both “revelatory and deeply hurtful” — and how she’s made it to graduation more hopeful than ever about the future.

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What we're reading

MAHA leaders don’t see a 2028 champion, Politico
Fauci speaks out about the pandemic, global health — and his own record, Science
Exclusive: UnitedHealth executives shower high-ranking Democrat with donations ahead of midterms, STAT
Opinion: This is the biggest obstacle to new cancer cures, New York Times
Top Boston hospitals clash over Medicare Advantage network after split, Boston Globe