Listen: Pelosi’s drug pricing plan, Moderna’s mRNA drug factories, and a DIY disease cure

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing plan is aggressive, but is it viable? Can Moderna turn cells into tiny drug-making factories? What’s it like to cure your own rare disease?

We discuss all that and more on the latest episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. First, STAT’s Lev Facher joins us to discuss the details of Pelosi’s “leaked” plan to curb sky-high prescription drug prices and whether Democrats and Republicans can find enough common ground to pass meaningful legislation. Then, we’ll break down the latest effort by the biotech unicorn Moderna to turn synthesized messenger RNA into drugs and vaccines. Finally, STAT’s Matt Herper grabs a mic to discuss his interview with a UPenn professor who nearly died five times from a rare disorder, but was saved each time by his own scientific ingenuity.

For more on these topics, here’s the Pelosi drug-pricing story, here’s more on Moderna, and here’s Herper’s interview with that UPenn professor.

We’ll be back next Thursday evening — and every Thursday evening — so be sure to sign up on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, 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].

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