BU’s Covid tinkering, FDA on trial, & why it’s hard to take drugs off the market

What happens when approved drugs turn out not to work? Is it OK to make SARS-CoV-2 hybrids? And are British tabloids reliable sources of science news?

We cover all that and more this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. Lawyer and bioethicist ​​Holly Fernandez Lynch joins us to explain a watershed test of the FDA’s authority to revoke drug approvals. And STAT’s Helen Branswell calls in to discuss the headline-grabbing research at Boston University involving a lab-developed version of the virus that causes Covid-19.

For more on what we cover, here’s the news on the FDA; here’s the latest on the BU research; here’s where you can find episodes of Color Code; here’s where you can subscribe to the First Opinion Podcast; and here’s our complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Be sure to sign up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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].