Sarah specializes in the policy and politics that affect the pharmaceutical industry. She covers the US Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service and Congress and other parts of federal and state government. Her work explores how government policies influence how drugs are developed and approved, what diseases are prioritized by scientists, and who gets access to medicines and at what cost. Sarah has covered health care since 2011. Prior to returning to the Pink Sheet in March 2020, she covered health policy at Politico for five years. She is a regular panelist on the Kaiser Health News 'What the Health' podcast. Sarah was selected for and attended a 2018 International Women’s Media Foundation reporting fellowship in Rwanda. In 2016, she attended Harvard Medical School’s media fellowship on bioethics and, in 2014, was an Association of Health Care Journalists-National Library of Medicine Fellow.
Latest from Sarah Karlin-Smith
Recent ODAC meetings suggest the FDA will expand focus beyond applications with pending approval decisions to refining trial designs and drug labels for competitors.
The US FDA Commissioner pushed for a rebalancing of the US’s pharmaceutical supply chains while also stressing that there is a role for US-China commerce that would be risky to compromise.
The US FDA commissioner also said the hub is looking for an executive director who will work with the CBER and CDER heads, who will serve as co-leads.
Alternatives to the top pharmacy benefits managers argue health plan-PBM integration is leading to anti-competitive tactics that make it impossible for some employers to switch PBMs.
Recent ODACs suggest FDA is moving towards focusing not just on applications with pending approval decisions but on refining trials designs and drug labels for their competitors as well.
AbbVie’s migraine ad overstates the drug’s benefit, a problem that is amplified by using a celebrity, the agency says.