Know What's Happening in Healthcare
Know What's Happening in Healthcare
FDA approves KRESLADI, first CIRM‑backed gene‑editing therapy
The FDA cleared KRESLADI, a gene‑editing treatment from Rocket Pharmaceuticals for severe leukocyte adhesion deficiency‑I in children, eliminating the need for a bone‑marrow donor. It is the first product directly funded by California’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine to receive approval.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Syneron Bio raises $150M Series B
BridgeBio Pharma's oral drug infigratinib met its primary endpoint in a pivotal trial of more than 100 children with achondroplasia, delivering an average growth increase of 2.1 cm per year versus placebo. Adjusted analysis showed a 1.74 cm per year advantage, both statistically significant. The efficacy exceeds that of BioMarin's approved injectable, which added 1.57 cm per year in its own study. Results clear a regulatory path for the first oral therapy targeting the most common genetic form of dwarfism.
So Sanofi's board strikes again. Paul Hudson gets the old Paris boot 6 years after taking on the task of remaking the pipeline. It hasn't gone well. Next: Belen Garijo. She has a few years to get ready for the...
FDA defends its decision not to review Moderna's mRNA flu shot. My comments with @NBCNews @BerkeleyJr https://t.co/h8PlaEUC3v
In episode 500 of the Relentless Health Value podcast, host Stacey Richter celebrates the community of healthcare entrepreneurs, executives, and change‑makers she calls the "tribe," highlighting how the show has moved listeners from theory to real‑world transformation. Listener clips illustrate...
Key late-breakers at Asco #GU26 include Litespark-011 & 022, Keynote-B15... and who's heard of Flare Therapeutics? Via @ApexOnco -> https://t.co/bXcANMQu5m $MRK $PFE $ALMPF $CGON $VIR
A new WHO‑backed study in Nature Medicine estimates that 7 million cancer cases each year—about 37 % of the global burden—are preventable. Tobacco, infections and alcohol together account for roughly 25 % of all cancers, with tobacco alone responsible for 3.3 million cases. The...
Employers face a projected 9% rise in health‑benefit costs for 2026, driven largely by soaring prescription drug expenses. GLP‑1 receptor agonists, originally diabetes treatments now popular for weight loss, have become the fastest‑growing cost component, with 79% of employers reporting...
Neurent Medical announced an oversubscribed €62.5 million Series C round, led by MVM Partners and Sofinnova Partners, to accelerate the commercial rollout of its NEUROMARK system for chronic rhinitis. The funding will expand European market presence, deepen clinical evidence, and support a...
Researchers at AutoIVF introduced OvaReady, a microfluidic device that scans discarded follicular fluid and retrieves eggs missed by traditional microscopy. In a study of 582 patients across four U.S. clinics, the system found additional viable eggs in 316 cases, yielding...
Louisville Water discovered a sharp increase in the GenX PFAS variant in December 2024, with concentrations 15 times higher than the previous month, reaching 52 parts per trillion. The spike was traced upstream to Chemours' plant in West Virginia, but...
In this episode, Gabriele Corso and Jeremy Wohlwend discuss how structural biology has moved beyond AlphaFold's single‑chain predictions toward modeling complex interactions and generative protein design with their open‑source Boltz suite (Boltz‑1, Boltz‑2, and BoltzGen). They explain that evolutionary co‑variation...
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the 2025 reconciliation bill’s Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBBBA) will trim roughly $1.2 trillion from Medicaid spending over the next decade. Despite this sizable reduction, overall Medicaid outlays are expected to keep rising because...
On February 11, the House Energy & Commerce health subcommittee signaled it will keep pressuring pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) after a recent FTC settlement involving Cigna’s Express Scripts. Chair Rep. Buddy Carter asked the new head of the traditional PBM...
![Business Literacy Empowers Physicians to Lead Sustainable Health Systems [PODCAST]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/articles/4f44f3669b3c12e1a928e85742e2cb1b.webp)
In a recent KevinMD podcast, family physician Kelly Bain discusses how business literacy is essential for physicians navigating today’s increasingly employed and value‑based health‑care environment. Drawing from her three‑phase career—from rural solo practice to a large multi‑specialty group and finally...
The 2026 PM360 Pharma Choice Awards named Fingerpaint Multicultural and Novo Nordisk’s "Maneja Tu Peso" campaign a Variety Bronze winner. The initiative is an online hub aimed at US Hispanic adults living with obesity, delivering culturally tailored education and a...
CMS issued a Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2027 proposing to keep long‑term nursing‑home custodial care outside the list of essential health benefits required for ACA marketplace plans. The rule maintains that custodial stays are not mandatory coverage,...
Hospice providers are expanding coast‑to‑coast, with Augusta Inpatient Hospice Home opening in Georgia, Julia Hospice & Palliative Care planning a nine‑room Julia House in Pennsylvania, and Tri‑Cities Chaplaincy completing a $3.5 million renovation in Washington. In Florida, Gulfside Healthcare Services broadened...
The Maine Hospital Association announced that long‑time President Steven Michaud will retire after a 27‑year tenure, having led the organization since 1999. Jeffrey Austin, currently vice president of government affairs and communications, will take over as president on March 1, 2026....
The Senate Special Committee on Aging convened a hearing on Feb. 11 to address the growing physician burnout crisis. The American Hospital Association (AHA) urged Congress to act on three bills: the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act to simplify...
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on Feb. 11 to examine how prescription‑drug pricing affects overall health‑care costs. The American Hospital Association (AHA) testified, warning that proposals to replace the 340B drug‑pricing program with a rebate...
The randomized OPTION trial showed that intravenous tenecteplase given 4.5 to 24 hours after symptom onset improves functional outcomes in patients with acute non‑large‑vessel‑occlusion (non‑LVO) strokes. At 90 days, 43.6% of tenecteplase recipients achieved a modified Rankin Scale score of...
The sober‑curious movement is reshaping how Americans view alcohol, with celebrity disclosures and a Gallup poll showing drinking prevalence falling to 54 % of adults. Scientific research now outlines a clear health‑recovery timeline: blood pressure drops in the first week, insulin...
Dr. Steve Landers stepped down as CEO of the National Alliance for Care at Home, ending his 17‑month tenure that began in September 2024. He will remain on the board to aid the transition, which takes effect on Feb. 9. Jennifer...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared an investigational new drug application for Life Biosciences' ER‑100, a viral gene‑therapy that delivers inducible Oct‑4, Sox‑2 and Klf‑4 (OSK) to the eye. The first‑in‑human trial will enroll a small cohort of...
Scientists at Northwestern University identified that the toxic amyloid‑beta 42 peptide accumulates inside neuronal synaptic vesicles and that the FDA‑approved anti‑epileptic drug levetiracetam can halt this process. By binding to the SV2A protein, levetiracetam alters APP trafficking, keeping the precursor...
CiteAb unveiled the Explore Platform, combining its long‑standing reagent search engine with a new image‑search capability. The platform draws on a database of more than 16 million research tools cited in over 40 million publications, spanning antibodies, proteins, models and kits. Its...
Lubrizol has launched Tolerathane™ TPU, a medical‑grade thermoplastic polyurethane designed for implantable devices. The material offers superior resistance to oxidative and hydrolytic degradation while maintaining exceptional softness and mechanical resilience. It integrates with standard thermal processing, enabling thinner‑wall, miniaturized designs...
Covista, the former Adtalem Global Education, has rebranded to signal its exclusive focus on health‑care education amid a widening U.S. workforce gap. The company reports more than 24,000 health‑care graduates each year, accounting for roughly 10% of the nation’s nurses...
Box Intelligent Content Management delivers a cloud‑based, zero‑trust platform tailored for healthcare’s strict security and compliance needs. The solution unifies over 1,500 integrations, enabling seamless collaboration between Office 365, Google Workspace and other systems while providing built‑in e‑signatures and workflow automation....
Pet peeve: why do "scientists" forget about the concept of significant figures? Happens all the time, in biotech & beyond. Too many decimal places scream lack of credibility. "Sig figs" is a simple concept: measurement readings should not push beyond instrument...
Over 90% of responders believe it's time for mammography to incorporate AI for every readout, whereas close to 0% who get screened are getting that interpretation now, and at no out-of-pocket charge https://t.co/hITOBNd7pg https://t.co/x1I6Ffxfio
Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar said the firm aims to capture roughly 15 million new patients once Medicare begins covering obesity drugs later this year. The coverage, part of a "most‑favored‑nation" pricing deal with the Trump administration, could expand the market...
Congress passed a spending bill that forces pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to disclose detailed pricing information to group health plans starting in 2028‑2029. The law requires semiannual reports on drug spreads, net prices, rebates, and out‑of‑pocket costs, and mandates that...
The inaugural European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) Summit will take place in Munich on February 19‑20, 2026, offering a two‑day program of technical deep dives, AI-focused sessions, and hands‑on training. Over 300 abstracts and clinical cases will be...
Mayo Clinic Platform’s Orchestrate tool has added new capabilities that deliver standardized, research‑ready cancer data. The upgrade leverages the OMOP Oncology common data model to transform unstructured inputs such as pathology reports and imaging into consistent tumor characteristics, biomarkers, and...
Harvard prints soft-robotics filaments with hollow channels that deform in a controlled way using compressed air https://t.co/t2o9lBwFOp https://t.co/PGXRRmrmDn
Zimmer Biomet announced a U.S. salesforce reorganization aimed at creating a fully dedicated, product‑specialized team of 2,500 reps. The shift targets high‑growth segments such as sports medicine, trauma, robotics, and ambulatory surgery centers, with one‑third of the transition already complete....
WTWH Healthcare has opened nominations for its 2026 Memory Care Innovation Awards, honoring individuals and organizations that advance cognitive care across home health, hospice, senior living, and related sectors. Eligible nominees must have at least seven years of experience and...
Harbor Health, an Austin‑based primary care and health‑insurance group, announced the acquisition of Rippl, a Seattle‑based dementia‑care platform. The deal, terms undisclosed, adds Rippl’s CMS GUIDE‑model services for Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare beneficiaries to Harbor’s condition‑focused care pathways. By...
A new national policy framework released by Children’s Respite Homes of America and the National Center for Pediatric Palliative Care Homes proposes mandatory Medicaid EPSDT coverage for community‑based pediatric palliative care centers (PPCCenters) and short‑term respite (PPCRespite). The paper defines...
Take2 announced a $14 million Series A round led by Human Capital, with participation from Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, Reach Capital, SemperVirens VC and Honeystone Ventures. The startup builds autonomous AI agents that conduct phone interviews, schedule appointments and handle credential verification for...
A recent economic evaluation of the ASSIST trial at Massachusetts General Hospital identified the most cost‑effective smoking‑cessation approach for patients undergoing lung‑cancer screening. The optimal strategy combined eight telehealth counseling sessions with a two‑week course of nicotine‑replacement patches, achieving an...
Congress approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, extending key Medicare telehealth flexibilities through Dec. 31 2027. The extension preserves waivers for in‑person visits, home‑based originating sites, audio‑only services, and broader clinician eligibility, while renewing the Acute Hospital at Home program to...
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) unveiled a five‑phase training pathway to standardize robotic cardiac surgery adoption, covering prerequisites, baseline team training, initial clinical use, efficiency gains, and mastery. The guideline mandates at least three years of attending experience or...
Not only has the US blocked a significant advance for a flu vaccine, but it has done nothing, unlike China, to advance a nasal Covid vaccine that achieves mucosal immunity to block infections https://t.co/FXnaWjxkWV https://t.co/WABn5324U8
A large prospective analysis of three U.S. cohorts found that both low‑carbohydrate and low‑fat eating patterns can reduce coronary heart disease risk when they emphasize nutrient‑dense, plant‑based foods. In contrast, versions of these diets high in animal fat, animal protein,...
ICE: robust detection of cellular senescence from weak single-cell signatures using imputation-based marker refinement https://t.co/PDp6oK5s3W https://t.co/8cPgIQEuID
In this episode of The Chad Prather Show, host and health‑care writer discuss the recent congressional hearing on big‑insurance CEOs, exposing how insurers have built vertically integrated conglomerates that drive up premiums, deductibles, and Medicare Advantage denials. They highlight the...
At the @HHS_TechPolicy Annual Meeting #astp2026 and Steven Posnack @HealthIT_Policy is leading a panel on #transparency and #affordability https://t.co/6yn7f8LbPC
A retrospective cohort study of Kaiser Permanente members aged 65 and older found that receiving two doses of the recombinant zoster vaccine (Shingrix) was associated with a 51% lower incidence of dementia. The protective effect was observed across age, racial,...
