 | |
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Boston,Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Owner | Boston Globe Media Partners |
| Founder | John W. Henry |
| Editor | Rick Berke |
| URL | www |
| Launched | November 4, 2015; 10 years ago (2015-11-04) |
Stat (stylizedSTAT, sometimes also calledStat News)[1] is an American health-oriented news website launched on November 4, 2015, byJohn W. Henry, the owner ofThe Boston Globe. It is produced byBoston Globe Media and is headquartered in theGlobe's own building inBoston.[2][3] Its executive editor is Rick Berke, who formerly worked at bothThe New York Times andPolitico.[4] According to Kelsey Sutton ofPolitico, the website is Henry's "biggest and most ambitious standalone site yet".[5] The site's name comes from the term "stat", short forstatim, or "immediately"—a term that has long been used in medical contexts.
STAT grew from 45 staff members in 2016[3] to 100 by 2025.[6]
Notable stories Stat has broken include one aboutRobert Califf's research, published after then–President of the United StatesBarack Obama announced he would be his nominee to lead theFood and Drug Administration. The site also uncovered claims made by a vitamin company to which PresidentDonald Trump had licensed his name. The site's reporting has also inspired another presidential candidate,Bernie Sanders, to return a contribution that a disgraced former pharmaceutical industry CEO made to his campaign.[1] The site has also sent multiple journalists toColombia,Haiti, andBrazil to cover thezika outbreaks there.[3][7] Stat began covering the Coronavirus outbreak early, starting with an article[8] byHelen Branswell on 4 January 2020. Helen Branswell was among the first to link the virus back to China,[6] and its early coverage led to a surge in reader traffic 4-5 times above typical volumes.[9] STAT estimated in 2023 that it reaches about 2.3 million unique readers every month, with over 196,000 newsletter subscribers.[10] STAT has won a number of awards and was twice a finalist for thePulitzer Prize.[6]
An April 16, 2020 article entitled "Early peek at data on Gilead coronavirus drug suggests patients are responding to treatment"[11] by Adam Feuerstein contained early, incomplete results of aUniversity of Chicagoclinical trial of theCOVID-19 drugremdesivir, which were leaked to STAT without permission.[12] Shares ofGilead Sciences, the developer of remdesivir, jumped higher in after-hours trading immediately after the report was published.[13] In a statement to CNBC, a University of Chicago spokesperson said, “Partial data from an ongoing clinical trial is by definition incomplete and should never be used to draw conclusions about the safety or efficacy of a potential treatment that is under investigation."[13]Lloyd Doggett, chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, called for an investigation of the leak, noting that "providing information that's designed to impact the stock market is not something that is permitted under federal securities law."[12]