Today's Healthcare Pulse
Allogene Therapeutics CEO David Chang to step down
Allogene Therapeutics announced that chief executive David Chang will leave his role. The news was reported by STAT+ and echoed in a follow‑up piece covering broader pharma updates.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Boston Scientific invests $1.5B for 34% stake in MiRus
Do Wall Street Analysts Like Welltower Stock?
Welltower Inc., a $150.9 billion healthcare REIT, posted a 45.5% stock surge over the past year, outpacing the S&P 500 and its real‑estate peers. First‑quarter 2026 results showed normalized FFO of $1.47 per share, a 23% year‑over‑year rise, and revenue of $3.35 billion, driven by higher occupancy and acquisitions. Analysts maintain a strong‑buy consensus, with 14 of 20 recommending a buy and Jefferies lifting its price target to $248. The company’s earnings‑surprise streak and robust senior‑housing demand underpin the bullish outlook.
Roche’s $1.05 B PathAI Deal Highlights Massachusetts AI Hub Momentum
Roche agreed to buy Boston‑based PathAI for $750 million upfront, with a potential $300 million earn‑out, a deal valued at up to $1.05 billion. The transaction, praised by coalition members including Whoop, signals deepening venture capital confidence in Massachusetts’ AI cluster.
FDA Approves Enhertu for Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant HER2‑Positive Early Breast Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Enhertu (fam‑trastuzumab deruxtecan‑nxki) for two new HER2‑positive early‑breast‑cancer indications – neoadjuvant treatment of stage 2‑3 disease and adjuvant therapy for patients with residual invasive disease after standard therapy. The approvals rest on phase 3...
Artificial Intelligence Can Prevent a Delayed Diagnosis
Uday Rajaram recounts how an AI system pinpointed his mother's diabetes medication as the cause of diabetic ketoacidosis and acute pancreatitis within three minutes, delivering an 84% confidence rating. Traditional hospital diagnostics required six days, multiple specialists, and an ICU...
Millions Impacted Across Several US Healthcare Data Breaches
Several U.S. healthcare providers disclosed massive data breaches that together affect millions of patients. The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation reported a breach compromising 1.8 million records, while Erie Family Health Centers, Florida Physician Specialists, Coastal Carolina Health Care,...
Data Interoperability in Healthcare Apps: Why It Matters
Healthcare apps now span telehealth, remote monitoring, imaging and AI, but fragmented data hampers their value. Interoperability lets disparate systems exchange patient information securely, eliminating manual copying and duplicate entry. Standards such as HL7, FHIR and DICOM enable these connections,...
Merck Eyes $6 Billion in Seven-Part Bond Sale for Terns Deal
Merck & Co. is planning a $6 billion investment‑grade bond issuance to finance its purchase of Terns Pharmaceuticals. The debt will be offered in up to seven separate tranches, with the longest being a 30‑year note. The senior tranche is expected...
How Peer-Driven Feedback Is Reshaping Healthcare Technology Purchasing Decisions
Healthcare buyers are moving away from vendor‑centric demos toward peer‑driven feedback when evaluating digital health platforms. Executives now prioritize real‑world implementation insights, workflow integration, and user experience over feature lists and AI hype. This shift comes as hospitals grapple with...
How Direct-to-Patient Is Redefining Drug Pricing
Jeremy Richardson, CCO of Gifthealth, argues that integrated direct‑to‑patient (DTP) models can overhaul the prescription journey by delivering transparent pricing, faster access, and reduced administrative friction. He highlights that 55% of Americans fear unaffordable drugs and that prior authorizations generate...
Rural Hospital Closures Disrupt Care Access for Injured Workers but Don’t Worsen Claim Outcomes
A Workers Compensation Research Institute study of more than 12 million claims across 29 states found that rural hospital closures cut same‑day emergency care use by 3.6 percentage points and added an average of 10.5 miles to travel distance. The impact was...
Novartis Reveals More Data Behind Pluvicto Expansion Bid
Novartas reported new PSMAddition trial data showing that adding its radioligand therapy Pluvicto to standard hormonal treatment cuts PSA progression by 58% in hormone‑sensitive metastatic prostate cancer. Deep PSA reductions below 0.2 ng/mL were achieved by 87.4% of patients versus 74.9%...
Amgen’s Rare Disease Drug Tavneos Tied to 20 Deaths in Japan
Amgen’s rare‑disease drug Tavneos has been linked to 20 deaths among roughly 8,500 Japanese patients, primarily due to vanishing bile duct syndrome, a severe form of drug‑induced liver injury. The Japanese distributor Kissei Pharmaceutical has warned doctors against initiating new...
10 Key Lessons in 'the Shift From CoPilots to Agents in Healthcare'
Healthcare is moving from reactive AI copilots to autonomous agents that can execute multi‑step clinical workflows with minimal human input. Global AI spending is projected to hit $2.52 trillion in 2026, while AI firms secured $242 billion in Q1 2026, fueling rapid adoption...
Harbour Posts Preclinical Data on Would-Be Rival to Eli Lilly’s $1.9B Obesity Bet
Harbour BioMed released preclinical data on LET003, an ACVR2A/2B‑targeting monoclonal antibody created with its AI‑enabled Hu‑mAtrIx platform. In mouse and monkey studies the molecule cleared more slowly than comparators and drove a 13.5% increase in lean mass versus a rival...
Reminder Texts Help Radiology Department Reduce Nuclear Medicine Appointment Cancelations
Automated reminder texts introduced by the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville have cut cancellations for nuclear medicine exams. In a study published in JACR, opening the messages lowered stress‑test cancellations to 3.21% versus 5.91% overall, and FDG PET cancellations fell to...
The Next AI Use Case in Radiology Isn’t Diagnosis. It’s Patient Understanding
Peter Nemeth argues that the first scalable AI use case in radiology is not autonomous diagnosis but patient‑focused explanation of imaging results. The 21st Century Cures Act now forces health portals to release reports instantly, leaving most patients confused by...
Sandoz Reports the EC Approval of Bysumlog and Dazparda (Biosimilars, Humalog and NovoRapid)
The European Commission has granted approval for Sandoz's biosimilar insulin pens Bysumlog (insulin lispro) and Dazparda (insulin aspart). Both products are authorized as prefilled pens for diabetes treatment in adults, children and patients as young as one year, demonstrating efficacy...
Hospital Cyber Attacks Are Increasingly Hitting Patient Care
European hospitals are facing a dramatic shift in cyber risk, with 82 % rating the threat as extreme and 74 % expecting a major incident this year. Attackers now target authentication, clinical workflows and digital patient‑care pathways, turning cybersecurity into a direct...
BIO Supports and Seeks Refinements to FDA’s Plausible Mechanism Framework
The FDA has issued draft guidance introducing a Plausible Mechanism Framework to evaluate safety and efficacy of individualized, disease‑targeted therapies when traditional trials are infeasible. The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) issued a supportive comment letter, praising the agency’s direction while...
We Need to Domesticate Africa’s Health Algorithm
The article argues that Africa must domesticate its health‑data AI ecosystem to capture economic and public‑health value. While the continent boasts some of the world’s most diverse and under‑represented health data, less than 1% of global data‑center capacity and 70‑90%...
What Psychedelic Clinical Trials Could Teach Psychiatry
Treatment‑resistant depression (TRD) affects roughly one‑third of U.S. adults on antidepressants and remains a high‑need, low‑treatment area. Compass Pathways’ synthetic psilocybin, COMP360, recently achieved its primary endpoints in two Phase III trials—258 patients in COMP005 and 581 in COMP006—showing rapid, durable...
Supercharging Immune Cells May Help Control HIV Long-Term
Scientists have repurposed CAR‑T cell therapy, originally used for cancer, to target HIV. In a small Phase 1 trial, two participants who received the engineered T cells remained off antiretroviral drugs with undetectable viral loads for nearly two years and one...
AstraZeneca Reports the US FDA Approval of Baxfendy (Baxdrostat) To Treat Hard-to-Control Hypertension
AstraZeneca’s Baxfendy (baxdrostat) received U.S. FDA approval for use with other antihypertensives in patients with uncontrolled or treatment‑resistant hypertension. The approval is based on the Phase III BaxHTN trial, which enrolled 796 participants and showed significant blood‑pressure reductions versus placebo. In...
Michigan Teen Gets FDA‑Approved Therapy to Delay Insulin Use in Type‑1 Diabetes
Fourteen‑year‑old Grayson Visco of Hudsonville, Michigan, started a teplizumab infusion that can postpone the need for insulin by a median of 2.7 years. The therapy, sold as TZield, received broader FDA clearance in April to treat children as young as...
Philips Wins Eight-Year Hospital-at-Home Deal for 15,000 Stockholm Patients
Royal Philips has been chosen to lead a consortium delivering a hospital‑at‑home platform for up to 15,000 patients a year in Stockholm. The eight‑year agreement, driven by Karolinska University Hospital, will use remote‑monitoring devices to provide hospital‑level oversight in patients'...
Goldman Sachs Raises Biogen Target to $250 on 74% Leqembi Sales Surge
Goldman Sachs lifted its price target on Biogen (BIIB) from $238 to $250 after the company's Q1 2026 earnings showed Leqembi sales up 74% year‑over‑year to $168 million. The move underscores growing confidence that the Alzheimer's therapy can sustain a new...
WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak in DRC and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
The World Health Organization on May 17 declared the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, after reporting over 330 suspected cases and 88 deaths. The declaration urges a...
World AIDS Vaccine Day 2026: What HIV Vaccine Research Is Testing Now
World AIDS Vaccine Day 2026, themed “Rethink. Rebuild. Rise,” highlighted a shifting HIV prevention landscape. In Europe, funding for vaccine R&D fell from about $16.5 million in 2009 to roughly $9.9 million in 2020, jeopardizing expertise. New data show individual broadly neutralizing...
FDA’s New Pilot Program and Real-Time Review of Clinical Data
The FDA announced a pilot program that lets regulators review clinical trial data in real time, allowing safety signals and efficacy endpoints to be shared as they are recorded. Dr. Richard Graham explained that the initiative aims to eliminate the...
How Toragen's Alignment With The Gates Foundation Supports Global Access and Commercialization
Toragen announced a strategic partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an oral small‑molecule therapy for cervical cancer. The collaboration builds on a 21‑year relationship that began through the Novartis Research Foundation and was accelerated by promising...
Tracy Beth Høeg Ousted From FDA in Wider Senior Leadership Shakeup
Tracy Beth Høeg was dismissed after just six months as acting head of the FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), marking the fifth leadership change at the unit since President Trump’s second term began. During her brief tenure, Høeg pushed...
Japan’s MHLW Approves Boehringer’s Jascayd for IPF and PPF
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jascayd (nerandomilast) has been approved by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF). It is the first phosphodiesterase 4B inhibitor with antifibrotic and immunomodulatory properties to receive such...
Efgartigimod Approved for Seronegative Myasthenia Gravis Patients
The FDA has expanded approval of efgartigimod alfa‑fcab (Vyvgart) to treat adults with acetylcholine‑receptor‑antibody‑negative generalized myasthenia gravis, making it the first FcRn‑targeted therapy for this underserved group. The decision follows the phase 3 ADAPT SERON trial, which enrolled 119 seronegative patients and...
How to Tackle the Chronic Condition Trifecta
Cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes affect roughly 130 million U.S. adults, with over half reporting multiple chronic conditions. Traditional, siloed wellness programs have failed to curb the escalating health‑care costs and productivity losses tied to this trifecta. Brokers and benefits leaders...
Insurers’ Delays in Approving Medical Care Persist, Despite Promises
Nearly a year after insurers pledged to overhaul prior authorization, patients and doctors report that delays and denials remain commonplace. A KFF poll shows 70% of insured adults find the process burdensome, with one‑third calling it a major obstacle. Insurers...
Alex Toohie | Meet the Speakers: Med-Tech Expo 2026
Alexander Toohie, Technical Solution Manager at Element Materials Technology, will speak at Med‑Tech Expo 2026 about mandatory approvals that sit outside the usual FDA and EU MDR pathways, especially the hidden classification of wireless medical devices as radio equipment. He...
Why Patients Feel the Difference in an Automated Practice (Even if They Don’t Know It)
Healthcare providers are investing heavily in automation, but patients don’t notice the technology itself—they notice the smoother experience it creates. By automating scheduling, intake, communication and post‑visit follow‑through, practices eliminate friction points that traditionally caused delays and confusion. The result...
Emergency Medicine Revenue at Risk: Navigating the Algorithmic Squeeze
Emergency medicine groups are confronting a new wave of payer pressure driven by automated, opaque algorithms that downcode claims based on final diagnoses. Recent coding guideline changes in 2023 shifted billing emphasis to medical‑decision‑making, inflating acuity levels and prompting payers...
Reinventing the Stethoscope and Cardiopulmonary Care
Eko Health, backed by Infineon, has launched the CORE 500 AI‑powered digital stethoscope, which pairs ultra‑low‑power PSoC 63 microcontrollers with advanced MEMS microphones to deliver real‑time heart‑sound analysis and three‑lead ECG. Clinical data from the TRICORDER trial show the device identifies heart...
Nursing Staff Levels Endangering Patients, Says Union
A Royal College of Nursing (RCN) survey reveals that 79% of frontline nurses see rising clinical complexity while only one in ten believe staffing levels are adequate. Seventy‑nine percent report heightened risk to patients, and 69% say they must constantly...
Lotte Biologics Expands Antibody Manufacturing Agreement with Ottimo Pharma
Lotte Biologics announced on May 18, 2026 an expanded collaboration with South Korean biotech Ottimo Pharma to manufacture its PD‑1/VEGFR2 dual‑paratopic antibody, OTP‑01. The agreement builds on a June‑2025 deal and adds commercial process development support at Lotte’s Syracuse Bio Campus in...
PainTEQ Announces US Launch of SI Joint Implant
PainTEQ has begun commercial sales of TRAQ, a posterior sacroiliac (SI) joint fusion implant, in the United States. The device features triangular barbs that achieve bicortical fixation of the sacral and iliac cortices and is delivered through a 1‑inch posterior...
The Rise and Fall of Safer Supply Programs in Canada
Safer supply programs, introduced in Canada in 2017, aimed to curb opioid overdose deaths by providing pharmaceutical‑grade alternatives to street drugs. By 2022, provincial roll‑outs spanned six provinces with roughly CAD 150 million (≈US 110 million) in federal funding, and early data showed a...
Genentech Reports FDA Approval of Tecentriq and Tecentriq Hybreza for Adjuvant Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer With ctDNA-Guided Treatment
Genentech’s Tecentriq and Tecentriq Hybreza received FDA approval as adjuvant therapies for adults with muscle‑invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) who show circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) minimal residual disease after cystectomy. The approval is linked to Natera’s Signatera CDx assay, which was...
Student Demand Outpaces Campus Counseling Availability
TimelyCare’s new report, based on a survey of more than 130 campus counseling leaders, reveals that student mental‑health demand is outpacing the capacity of university counseling centers. Roughly 80% of respondents report staff‑to‑student ratios of 1:500 or higher, and 38%...
WHO Kicks Off Annual Assembly Amid Hantavirus, Ebola Crises
The WHO’s annual decision‑making assembly opened in Geneva on May 18 while the organization grapples with a rare hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship and a fresh Ebola flare‑up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the same time, the United...
Makary’s Successor Faces Tough Task Managing FDA Amid Budget Cuts
Marty Makary was removed as FDA commissioner after just over a year, amid criticism over his positions on flavored vapes and abortion pills. The Trump administration has proposed a $7 bn, 5.5% cut to the FDA budget for FY2026, shrinking staff...
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu Receives US FDA Approval in Early Breast Cancer for Two Indications
The U.S. FDA approved AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s antibody‑drug conjugate Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) for two early‑stage HER2‑positive breast‑cancer indications. In the neoadjuvant setting, Enhertu combined with trastuzumab‑pertuzumab (THP) earned approval after the DESTINY‑Breast11 trial showed a 67.3% pathologic complete response...
Healthcare ‘Quality’ Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.
Healthcare quality in the U.S. is widely perceived as poor, with 56% of Americans rating it fair or worse and 90% feeling they overpay. The article argues that the disconnect stems from industry‑centric metrics that ignore patient outcomes, experience, and...
What You Need to Know About the Ebola Outbreak that Has the WHO Concerned
The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. To date, 336 people have been infected and 88 have died, with the rare Bundibugyo strain...