A series of laws had been passed based on this belief, introducing compulsory counseling and waiting periods for people seeking abortions, thereby adding barriers to accessing the procedure, especially for patients with lower incomes who couldn’t afford repeated time off work, travel, and associated costs such as child care.

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But experts point out that much of this company-funded research does not include the cost of the drugs themselves, which sell at more than $10,000 per year in the U.S. and are meant to be taken indefinitely.

The two major pharmaceutical companies have seen interest skyrocket for their GLP-1-based drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, a new generation of medications that can cut substantial amounts of weight. But insurance plans have been slow to grant wide access to obesity treatments, concerned that the vast amount of people eligible to take them, along with their high price, could lead to significant financial strain.

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Thomsen got right to the point. Her team had failed to wrestle a gut hormone called GLP-1 into a new kind of drug for diabetes. Management was giving them one more shot. And by them, he meant her. “You need to figure out what to do with GLP-1,” he said. “And it has to be now.”

Knudsen went back to her office on the outskirts of Copenhagen, closed the door, and in the silence, got to work.

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This year’s class of 28 Wunderkinds were selected from more than 170 brilliant researchers. In this video, we chat with Ahmed Ahmed, who studies the impact of unionization on health care workers; Josh Tycko, who’s focused on epigenetic editing; Kristine Chua, who studies how biology and social environments interact to affect pregnancy; Brenda Cabrera-Mendoza, who is interested in how genetic and socioeconomic factors that can influence mental health; and Valerie Tornini, who’s trying to understand how the evolution of key cell types in humans might happen differently in neurological disorders.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration requested White House clearance on a policy that would ultimately ban menthol cigarettes. The tobacco industry has already spent the last few months doing everything it can to drum up opposition, from drafting letters for members of Congress to rallying freedom-focused smokers, according to a review of advertising databases, leaked documents, and research reports.

The proposal, which is supported by a range of public health groups but fiercely opposed by cigarette makers, is one of the most consequential tobacco policies coming out of the FDA since the agency was given the authority to regulate tobacco in 2009. Researchers have estimated that the ban, if finalized, could prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, particularly among Black smokers, who use these products at a higher rate than other racial groups.

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“Patients and providers are not aware of how some drugs may act differently in people with obesity,” said Christina Chow, the head of research at Emerald Lake Safety, an institution that conducts independent research to make pharmaceuticals safer. “People with obesity are underrepresented in clinical trials for drug approval.”

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The lawsuit was filed in response to a state law that was passed in August and requires health insurers that provide coverage for these injectors to cap out-of-pocket costs to $60 for a package of two injectors. At the same time, the law — which goes into effect Jan. 1 — requires manufacturers to make injectors available to individuals through the program, and reimburse pharmacies for their costs.

The move came several years after EpiPen — the brand-name version of these injectors — became a symbol for unaffordable medicines thanks to large and steady price hikes taken by its manufacturer. The injectors are used to combat life-threatening food allergies, but even the arrival of generic alternatives has often failed to widen access, sometimes due to high-deductible health plans.

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New research published on Monday in Cell implicates both interferons and serotonin in long Covid in a way that brings together those hypotheses and could also explain “brain fog,” or the neurocognitive difficulties people endure. A team led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania concludes that when long Covid depletes peripheral serotonin — the kind that circulates in our bodies and not just the brain — that deficit impairs memory and other brain functions. The authors hope further research will lead to testing potential treatments.

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Good morning! Today, cell and gene therapy executives describe how they’re handling their sector’s contraction, we talk about how regulators are cracking down on clinical decision support software, and we look at some impressive BTK data in multiple sclerosis from Roche.

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Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy, unable to find the money to settle hundreds of federal, state, and private lawsuits alleging it oversupplied prescription opioid painkillers, The Wall Street Journal writes. The filing puts all those suits on hold. As part of the restructuring, the company will close more of its 2,100 stores and name a new chief executive. Its collapse imperils some of the roughly 47,000 jobs at the company, which just celebrated its 61st anniversary. Lenders will provide the company with about $200 million in new financing as part of a plan to restructure more than $3 billion of existing debt in chapter 11.

Two new immunizations promise to protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus – if people can find them, CNBC says. Providers are scrambling to offer a Pfizer vaccine, Abrysvo, to pregnant patients and a Sanofi monoclonal antibody, Beyfortus, to babies. The immunizations, both of which protect infants from complications of RSV, were recently approved and are starting to roll out just as the respiratory virus season gets underway. The tight timeline leaves little room to resolve logistical hurdles like insurance coverage, and the steep price is making some providers wary of stocking up without a guarantee they will get paid for administering them.

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The company leaders said that they’ve felt added pressure to use smaller teams to work quickly on fewer projects, and at times to partner with outside firms that have specific manufacturing and research expertise. Not all of these changes are bad, they added, noting that efficiency is a good trait for a biotech company in any market.

The candid conversation on Thursday was part of Meeting on the Mesa, an annual cell and gene therapy conference held in Carlsbad, in the north of San Diego County. And it provided a glimpse into discussions happening across the life science industry as biotech markets continue a sharp slump that dates back to late 2021.

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Abiomed, which was bought by Johnson & Johnson late last year for $16.6 billion, sells devices for heart failure patients as well as patient monitoring software. The FDA published a warning letter on Wednesday telling the company it should have submitted its software for approval before putting it on the market. The agency also took issue with Abiomed’s failure to report various problems with its heart pumps.

The letter comes a year after the Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to regulate more health software tools, sending the industry into an uproar.

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But while generally safe for short-term use, long-term steroids pose significant dangers. When weeks on steroids turn into months, or years, the risks grow, and patients should ask questions.

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At the same time, National Nurses United insists there isn’t a nurse shortage at all. There are plenty enough nurses for the country, they say — merely a shortage of nurses who want to work under current conditions.

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The advertisements, posted in January, were rare public evidence of the increasingly awkward relationship between two of the region’s most prominent cancer programs. Dana-Farber provides care in partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which has the same parent company as Mass General.

Not only had that corporate relationship produced competing billboards, it had also spurred competing visions. And by September, those festering differences led to an apparently permanent split. Dana-Farber announced it would break with the Brigham to partner with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center — a deal with huge implications for cancer care in Boston.

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Medicare’s annual enrollment period kicked off Sunday and runs through Dec. 7, allowing eligible older adults and people with disabilities to sign up for traditional Medicare coverage or Medicare Advantage, the alternative option that is run by health insurance companies.

A lot is changing during this year’s enrollment window. The federal government is cracking down on deceptive TV ads and other messaging that exaggerate the benefits of, or hide the potential flaws of, Medicare Advantage plans. The Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing this week on that same topic. Prescription drug plan premiums also are fluctuating a lot in many areas in response to provisions embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act.

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Israel has responded with massive airstrikes that, as of this writing, have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, including more than 450 children, and wounded more than 7,700 others, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, though this figure may include both fighters and civilians. More than 350,000 Gazans were displaced even before Israel ordered more than 1 million people to leave northern Gaza. The expected Israeli ground invasion will surely multiply the number of deaths and injuries to people living there.

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At issue is Avastin, an older cancer medicine that is often used by physicians to treat age-related macular degeneration and macular edema, among other ailments. The injectable medication was never approved for these purposes, but has proven effective, and so vials are often repackaged. Moreover, it is much cheaper than treatments that were approved by regulators for those uses.

Earlier this month, though, a company that is the largest supplier of repackaged Avastin began recalling its supplies after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspected its facilities and found sterility issues. In Oct. 2 letters to customers, Pine Pharmaceuticals, which also compounds medicines, did not offer a timeline for when it could resume repackaging and shipping Avastin.

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In the third quarter of this year, UnitedHealth’s net profit increased by more than 11%, to more than $5.8 billion, the company reported Friday.

UnitedHealthcare, the health insurance division of the conglomerate, registered a medical loss ratio of 82.3% in the quarter. That means for every $100 in premiums the company collected, it paid out $82.30 to hospitals, doctors, and other providers — and kept the rest as profit and to cover its own expenses. That ratio was lower than the 82.8% that Wall Street had predicted for the quarter.

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The $500 million investment across 13 projects is the latest installment in the federal government’s Project NextGen, a $5 billion plan to develop new Covid-19 treatments, vaccines, and ways of delivering them. The Health and Human Services Department this summer channeled $1.4 billion to similar goals.

Friday’s announcement includes $8.5 million for New York-based CastleVax to develop an intranasal vaccine and $10 million to Codagenix, also in New York, for a live-attenuated intranasal vaccine that it is working on with the Serum Institute of India, one of the largest vaccine producers in the world. HHS also allotted $10 million to Gritstone Bio, the first installment of what could be a massive $433 million investment in the small California biotech’s plans for a “self-amplifying mRNA” vaccine.

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