The FDA signed off on COVID-19 booster shots for immunocompromised people

Hello,

Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer, and this week in healthcare news:

• The FDA signs off on COVID-19 booster shots for immunocompromised people;
• Meet the new potential dealmakers of the drug industry;
• Three ways Dollar General could get into healthcare.

If you're new to this newsletter, sign up here. Tips, comments? Email me at lramsey@insider.com or tweet @lydiaramsey125. Let's get to it...

A third vaccine dose

The FDA was burning the midnight oil last night when it paved the way for some people with weakened immune systems to get a third dose of a vaccine.

Doctors can now consider giving third doses of the shots made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to people who are immunocompromised.

The decision doesn't yet open the door for a broader booster shot campaign in the US. Israel, on the other hand, is forging ahead. The country is giving extra doses to everyone over 50, as well as to immunocompromised individuals, healthcare workers, and prisoners.

Here's the late-breaking news>>

The FDA will allow COVID-19 booster shots for some people with weakened immune systems

The new dealmakers of the drug industry

Last week, I told y'all about Allison DeAngelis and Andrew Dunn's conversations with biotech VCs, and the startups they bet will take off in the next 12 months.

The reporting also led to a few more stories, including a chat with Flagship Pioneering's Noubar Afeyan.

He laid out the process he uses to create superstar biotechs like Moderna.

Allison and Andrew also took stock of the somewhat quiet year of dealmaking in biotech and pharma.

That led them to assemble a list of who might usurp Big Pharma to become the next big biotech acquirer.

Check out the full list>>

11 biotechs primed to make billion-dollar buys and usurp Big Pharma

What a discount retailer could do in healthcare

When Dollar General in July said that it had hired its first-ever chief medical officer, our ears perked up.

We've been tracking different retailers' ambitions in healthcare, but this was the first we were really hearing from some of the dollar stores.

It's an intriguing idea given Dollar General's reach in rural areas of the US where access to healthcare - including pharmacies - can be difficult to come by.

Megan Hernbroth and Shelby Livingston asked industry experts and analysts about what we can expect from Dollar General.

Get the full analysis>>

Dollar General hired a key health executive, but that's just the start. Here are 3 ways the discount chain could upend the $3.8 trillion healthcare industry.

More stories we worked on this week:

• We got a look at the 10-page pitch deck that Spora Health used to convince investors to bet $3 million on a new approach to telehealth.

- Lydia