Sarah Karlin-Smith

Sarah Karlin-Smith is a health care reporter at POLITICO, specializing in the policy and politics that affect the pharmaceutical industry and patients needing medicine. Her work explores how government policies influence how drugs are developed, what diseases are prioritized by scientists, and who gets access to medicines and at what cost. Sarah also focuses on complex bioethical topics like DNA editing of human embryos, terminally ill patients’ access to experimental drugs, and how society regulates anti-aging drugs. 

Sarah has covered health care for eight years. Prior to joining POLITICO, she followed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and drug policy at The Pink Sheet and FDAnews. 

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. She graduated with special honors in journalism and mass communication from The George Washington University where she minored in American studies.