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
Winner Announced for Cancer Screening Challenge
MaRS Discovery District and the Canadian Cancer Society announced Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health as the grand‑prize winner of the Rural and Remote Community Cancer Screening Challenge. The Ontario‑based nonprofit received a $100,000 prize (≈US$73,000) to expand its Integrated Rural Screening Initiative, which has already educated more than 450 rural residents at ten community events. The funding will be used to add a nurse‑practitioner‑pharmacy partnership that turns local pharmacies into entry points for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening, aiming to boost uptake and ease primary‑care pressure.
Hemophilia A Therapy by Expression Gets FDA Fast-Track, Pediatric Designation
The U.S. FDA awarded fast‑track and rare pediatric disease designations to Expression Therapeutics' investigational stem‑cell therapy for hemophilia A. The designations promise more frequent regulator interaction, rolling review, and eligibility for a priority‑review voucher, accelerating a potentially curative, one‑time treatment.
EyePoint Inc (EYPT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
EyePoint Pharmaceuticals reported a dramatic revenue drop to $600,000 for the quarter, reflecting the reversal of deferred YUTIQ license revenue, while operating expenses surged to $71 million as Phase 3 trials for its DuraVu platform intensified. The company posted a net loss...
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc (VNDA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Vanda Pharmaceuticals reported Q1 2026 net product sales of $51.7 million, a modest 3% year‑over‑year increase driven primarily by a 26% surge in Fanapt revenue and a 32% rise in prescriptions. Hetlioz sales continued to decline, falling 24% YoY amid generic...
Taysha Gene Therapies Inc (TSHA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Taysha Gene Therapies announced that its Rett syndrome gene therapy TSHA-102 has moved into pivotal development, securing FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation and written alignment on both the REVEAL pivotal and ASPIRE trial designs. Early Phase 1/2 data showed a 100%...
Urogen Pharma Ltd (URGN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
UroGen Pharma reported a $15.8 million 2025 revenue for its newly launched Zasturi, with the permanent J code effective Jan. 1 2026 spurring a sharp uptick in prescriber and site adoption. The company now has 838 activated sites, over 95% payer access, and...
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (SRPT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Sarepta Therapeutics reported $1.86 billion net product revenue for 2025, a 16% increase, and ended the year with $954 million in cash and investments. Management guided 2026 net product revenue to $1.2‑$1.4 billion, emphasizing a low‑end outlook while targeting operating profit and positive...
Establishment Labs Holdings Inc (ESTA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Establishment Labs Holdings posted $53.8 million revenue in Q1 2026, a 33.7% year‑over‑year increase, and achieved a 70.1% gross profit margin, surpassing the 70% threshold for the first time. Adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $1.2 million, marking the company’s inaugural profitable quarter after...
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals Inc (MDGL) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals reported its Q1 2026 earnings, highlighting that Rezdiffra generated $958 million in net sales for its first full year, nearly $1 billion in total revenue. Patient enrollment rose to 36,250, reflecting strong sequential growth in the expanding MASH market. The...
Biote Corp (BTMD) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Biote Corp reported Q1 2026 revenue of $46.4 million, down 6.9% year‑over‑year, with procedure revenue falling 13% while dietary supplement sales jumped 16% driven by e‑commerce. Gross profit margin slipped to 68% after a $1.3 million inventory charge linked to...
Novavax Inc (NVAX) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Novavax reported a Q1 2019 net loss of $43.2 million, improving from the prior year, while revenue fell 59% to $4 million as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant wound down. The company highlighted clinical milestones for its RSV vaccine ResVax,...
Bioventus Inc (BVS) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Bioventus Inc. reported Q1 2026 revenue of $158 million, a 3% year‑over‑year increase and 10% organic growth, driven primarily by volume gains in its Pain Treatments and Restorative Therapies segments. Adjusted EBITDA rose 30% to $37 million, expanding the margin to 23%...
Sera Prognostics Inc (SERA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Sera Prognostics reported Q1 2026 revenue of $14 k, down from $38 k, while operating expenses rose slightly to $9.4 M, resulting in an $8.4 M net loss. Management highlighted a strategic shift from R&D to commercialization, launching a third partnership program that reaches...
Agilon Health Inc (AGL) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Agilon Health reported Q1 2026 revenue of $1.42 billion, down from a year earlier, as Medicare Advantage and ACO REACH memberships slipped to 426,000 and 110,000 respectively. Despite the headcount decline, medical margin rose to $149 million and adjusted EBITDA more than doubled...
Zevra Therapeutics Inc (ZVRA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Zevra Therapeutics reported Q1 2026 net revenue of $36.2 million, a 78% year‑over‑year increase, driven primarily by MyPlifer sales of $24.6 million and a $10.2 million expanded‑access program. The company completed the $50 million divestiture of its SDX portfolio, recorded a $43.3 million one‑time gain...
Mineralys Therapeutics Inc (MLYS) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Mineralys Therapeutics reported Q1 2026 results highlighting FDA acceptance of lorundrostat’s NDA with a PDUFA target of Dec 22, 2026. The company completed five trials showing durable blood‑pressure reductions, though the EXPLORER‑OSA study missed its primary AHI endpoint, it still demonstrated a...
Piezoelectric MXene Scaffold Promotes Cartilage Repair While Limiting Vessel Growth
Researchers unveiled an origami‑folded PLLA/MXene scaffold that converts joint motion into piezoelectric signals and, when exposed to near‑infrared light, generates mild heat. The dual‑modality design doubles electrical output versus pure PLLA and reaches ~41 °C, a temperature that suppresses VEGF‑driven angiogenesis...
Cytokinetics Scores Late-Stage Win in Non-Obstructive HCM as BMS Plans Camzyos Restart
Cytokinetics announced that its experimental drug Myqorzo (aficamten) achieved both primary endpoints in the Phase III ACACIA‑HCM trial, marking the first late‑stage success for a therapy targeting non‑obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The result propelled the company’s stock up 17%, pushing its...
Re: The UK Covid-19 Inquiry Lays Bare the Cost of Delayed Action for NHS Staff
The UK Covid‑19 Inquiry highlighted stark disparities in pandemic outcomes for NHS and social‑care staff. By April 2020, two‑thirds of the 106 healthcare workers who died were from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, even though they represent only 20.7%...
![Your Waiting Room Does What Social Media Cannot [PODCAST]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://kevinmd.com/wp-content/uploads/sabet_neutrality_thumbnail.png)
Your Waiting Room Does What Social Media Cannot [PODCAST]
In a KevinMD podcast, psychiatrist Farid Sabet‑Sharghi argues that physician neutrality should give way to "radical moral integrity," drawing on his father’s experience treating prisoners in Iran and the ongoing bravery of Iranian clinicians. He observes that U.S. waiting rooms...
Cervical Cancer History Doesn't Block Menopause Hormone Therapy
A history of cervical cancer is not a contraindication to any form of menopause hormone therapy.
Pursuing Tech-Enabled Preventive Healthcare for Lower-Income Families
National University Hospital’s HEADS‑UPP programme in Singapore is using tele‑dentistry to deliver preventive dental care to low‑income preschoolers. Nurses capture intra‑oral images at preschools, which paediatric dentists review remotely to produce personalized risk reports. Early data show follow‑up specialist care...
Both Very Low and Very High Heart Rates May Be Linked to Higher Stroke Risk, Study Says
A UK Biobank analysis of nearly 460,000 adults presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference found a U‑shaped relationship between resting heart rate and stroke risk. The lowest risk occurred at 60‑69 beats per minute, while rates below 50 bpm...
NHI May Sell More Nursing Home Assets, Open to Offers Above Operating Partner’s $560M Pending Deal
National Health Investors (NHI) is accelerating its exit from skilled nursing facilities, highlighted by a pending $560 million sale of 32 nursing homes and three independent‑living sites to operator National HealthCare Corp. The REIT is also open to higher written offers...
VA Still on Pace with EHR Deployment After Rollouts Earlier This Year, Officials Say
The Department of Veterans Affairs has resumed its rollout of the new Oracle Health electronic health record system, completing the first independent deployments at four Michigan facilities after a year‑long pause. Officials say the Michigan launches went smoothly, prompting an...
PACS, Cantex, Venza Care Execs on ‘Highly Engineered’ Tech Deployment in Nursing Homes, Driving M&A, Compliance and Metrics
Nursing‑home operators are scaling technology investments to boost visibility, compliance and M&A efficiency. PACS Group, which runs 325 facilities and 32,208 beds across 18 states, uses a proprietary tech platform and an AI committee to evaluate acquisitions and enforce repeatable...
Nastent Nasal Insert Outperforms CPAP in Compliance
Your doctor will not tell you this. Most CPAP patients hate it and abandon it within months. Their oxygen crashes at night. Their mitochondria suffer. Their glymphatic system cannot clear amyloid beta. A clinical trial just completed on Nastent. It is...
MRI Reveals Link Between Hidden Muscle Fat and Undiagnosed Cardiometabolic Risk
Researchers used a deep‑learning segmentation algorithm on whole‑body MRIs of more than 11,000 ostensibly healthy adults and found that intramuscular fat is strongly associated with hypertension, atherogenic dyslipidemia and dysglycemia. The AI model dramatically reduced the time needed to quantify...
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NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE: Public Participation Process in ‘Frightfully Expensive’ NHI Scheme Under Scrutiny in ConCourt
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), representing 65 medical‑aid schemes and 4.5 million beneficiaries, has filed a constitutional challenge alleging that Parliament failed to conduct a meaningful public‑participation process for the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill. The case is being heard...
Tricare Drug Prices Hidden, Generics Offer Cheaper Alternative
Now I’m going to flip it. Tricare has the VA pharma contract. @ewarren tried to get a copy of their contract, with pricing to the taxpayer. They won’t provide it. She has done a good...
“Profound Autism”: The New Category That Could Change Everything
A federal advisory committee, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), has recommended adopting a new definition of “profound autism” that removes the requirement of intellectual disability and instead emphasizes minimal or no functional speech and the need for continuous supervision....
Advances in Genetic Medicine Took Center Stage at INSAR
At INSAR in Prague, researchers highlighted a surge of genetic‑medicine breakthroughs aimed at autism, focusing on rare variants such as SCN2A, SHANK3 and UBE3A. Techniques ranging from CRISPR gene editing to antisense oligonucleotides and epigenome editing demonstrated tangible symptom improvements,...
The AI Paradox: Why LLMs in Healthcare Actually Require More Structured Data, Not Less | Ewout Kramer & Ward Weistra...
In this episode, Awad Kramer and Ward Weistra of Firely discuss the origins and evolution of FHIR Dev Days, a community‑driven conference that educates developers on implementing the FHIR standard. They highlight how FHIR has become the backbone of health‑IT...
Mississippi Deploys Statewide Digital Platform to Expand Behavioral Health Access
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health rolled out the Mississippi Network of Care, a statewide digital hub that aggregates behavioral‑health resources for all 82 counties. The platform, unveiled at the NAMI Mississippi conference, adds ten regional sites and AI‑driven navigation...
Caris Life Sciences Secures MolDX Approval for Ultra-Deep Myeloid Cancer Sequencing Test
Caris Life Sciences announced that its Caris ChromoSeq test has earned MolDX approval, a CMS‑backed endorsement that could unlock broader reimbursement for comprehensive genomic profiling of acute myeloid leukemia and related blood cancers. The clearance validates the assay’s ultra‑deep sequencing depth—up...
Hiding in Plain Sight: Methamphetamine-Related MIs Not Uncommon
A California retrospective study of 1,309 adults under 65 found that 14.8% of acute myocardial infarctions (MIs) were associated with methamphetamine use. Meth‑related MIs occurred in younger men, featured more nonobstructive coronary disease, and led to lower rates of revascularization....
CMS Proposes Overhaul of Drug Prior‑Authorization Rules, Targeting Faster Approvals
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a proposal on April 10, 2026 to require electronic prior authorization for drugs across Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, CHIP and ACA Marketplace plans. The rule would impose new data standards, tighter decision windows...
OTC Monograph Drug User Fee Amendments (OMUFA): Understanding FY 2026 User Fees and Registration - 05/05/2026
The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research hosted a May 5, 2026 webinar to explain the Over‑the‑Counter Monograph Drug User Fee Amendments (OMUFA) for fiscal year 2026. The session covered fee structures, registration requirements for OTC monograph facilities, payment timelines, and penalties...
Provider-Payer Tensions Brew in Courtrooms: 3 Recent Lawsuits
Provider‑payer friction is spilling into the courts as health systems sue insurers over alleged underpayment. The California Hospital Association filed a suit against Anthem, claiming a 10% payment reduction for hospitals when out‑of‑network physicians treat patients. Broward Health is suing...
FDA Blocks Proven Therapies, Permits Untested Peptides
So let me get this straight - this FDA 1) won’t approve life saving melanoma and Huntington’s disease drugs based on BS objections related to control groups that would not be ethical 2) blocks large study showing exquisite safety of...
13‑Year Study Redefines Colonoscopy’s Population‑Level Impact
Colonoscopy, cancer prevention, and the new arithmetic of benefit - @TheLancet “The study's 13-year results compel a recalibration of what colonoscopy can—and cannot—achieve at the population level. https://t.co/vDOv0cSkjY
Impella 5.5 Shows Promise in Certain Non-Shock, High-Risk Cardiac Surgery Patients
The IMPACT trial presented at the 106th AATS meeting evaluated prophylactic Impella 5.5 support before weaning 100 non‑shock cardiac‑surgery patients (LVEF ≤35%) off cardiopulmonary bypass. Researchers found the strategy safe, feasible, and associated with favorable postoperative outcomes, hinting at a new...
Anemia Raises Alzheimer Biomarkers and Dementia Risk in Seniors
In a large study of older adults, anemia was linked to higher levels of blood biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegeneration, and brain inflammation, as well as a significantly increased risk of developing dementia over time. https://t.co/cnUbvkidIO
Trump Plan Cuts Drug Costs 6% but Still Double Abroad
WH says Trump's drug plan will reduce drug spending by about 6%, still leave us paying twice as much as people Canada and Europe.
The BioPharm Brief: Breakthrough Biologics and Long-Term Wins in IBD and Beyond
Viridian Therapeutics reported positive Phase III REVEAL‑2 data for veligrotug (VRDN‑001) in chronic thyroid eye disease, showing statistically significant reductions in proptosis and higher overall response rates. Eli Lilly presented four‑year long‑term results for mirikizumab (Omvoh) in ulcerative colitis, with a substantial...
AI Streamlines Discharge Summaries for Smoother Care Transitions
Care transitions shouldn’t feel like guesswork. When discharge summaries are hundreds of pages long, critical insights get lost. See how PointClickCare is using AI to deliver the right information at the right time: https://t.co/AJO6PwddKR @PointClickCare #HIMSS26 #HITSM
Telehealth Abortion Clinics Stay Open Despite Legal Hurdles
It's a weird limbo moment for telehealth abortion access. But despite legal challenges, providers want people to know virtual clinics are still open—and ready with backup plans @emilymullin and I: https://t.co/Sr1KeuZtGi
Oracle Health Rallies Community to Boost Rural Hospital Innovation
.@OracleHealth has long pioneered technology purpose-built for rural and critical access hospitals. I’m tremendously grateful for the hundreds of members of our Communityworks community who are joining us in Kansas City this week to connect, collaborate, and create a healthier...
FDA Approves Flavored E‑cigarettes as Safer Smoking Alternatives
Big news: The FDA for the first time has authorized flavored e-cigarettes. Smokers "deserve better, less harmful alternatives," the agency says. Indeed they do. #smoking #vaping https://t.co/Y0y24TsGDG
Build HIPAA‑compliant Healthcare Apps in Days, No Code
What if you could build a HIPAA-compliant app in days—without developers? 🤯 See how no-code is changing healthcare IT. 👀 🔗https://t.co/kElwSPCPYL #KnackHealth #NoCodePlatform #HITSM