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Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly reported booming sales Thursday from the new generation of diabetes and weight-loss drugs they’ve pioneered, as both drugmakers continue to scramble to keep up with demand. Denmark-based Novo reported $8.4 billion in revenue in the past three months — a 29 percent increase from a year ago — with its blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy accounting for more than half of sales. Lilly, based in Indianapolis, posted revenue of $9.5 billion for the latest quarter, a 37 percent increase, boosted by fast-growing sales of Mounjaro. (Gilbert, 11/2)

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly both expect juggernaut sales for their diabetes and weight-loss drugs to extend into coming years - limited only by their availability. The two companies have been the primary beneficiaries of the global boom in obesity drugs, ballooning their market values and reshaping expectations not just in the healthcare industry, but also for sellers of sugary snacks, nutritional aids and packaged foods. (Fick and Satija, 11/2)

The majority of U.S. patients with health insurance coverage taking Novo Nordisk's powerful weight-loss drug Wegovy are paying less than $25 per month, a senior executive said on Thursday. Doug Langa, Novo's vice president for North America, said most major pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health plans were covering the hugely popular weekly injection. (11/2)

An important Phase 3 trial has shown that a new drug that targets gonorrhea works as well as the last existing antibiotic to treat the sexually transmitted infection, results that could lead to licensure of the first new treatment for gonorrhea in decades. (Branswell, 11/1)

Treating some pneumonia patients with the antibiotic doxycycline instead of the more commonly prescribed azithromycin can reduce the risk of Clostridioides difficile infection by up to 45%, according to a study yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control. Using broad spectrum antibiotics to treat pneumonia is standard practice in US hospitals, but it raises the risk of patients acquiring C diff infections (CDI), which cause roughly 30,000 US deaths each year. (Soucheray, 11/2)

A revolutionary manner of precisely delivering radiation therapy to cancer patients while minimizing collateral damage is being rolled out by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore. The scientists have created a patch that can stop damage to healthy tissue by detecting any misplaced radiation from body movement and halting the dosage being delivered to the patient. (Castaneda, 11/2)

Hormone replacement therapy may protect the female brain from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia — if hormones are taken in the 40s and 50s when menopausal symptoms begin, according to a recent meta-analysis. The degree of protection appears to differ by hormone type, the report found. (LaMotte, 11/2)

To hear Sarepta CEO Doug Ingram tell it, the results Monday afternoon from a large trial of its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy marked a clear medical breakthrough. “A massive win,” he told investors, that could lead to its approval for all patients with the fatal muscle-wasting disease regardless of age. And yet the rest of the Duchenne community was more cautious in its enthusiasm. The study — the most rigorous test to date of a technology 30 years in the making — had technically failed, as so many had before it. (Mast and Feuerstein, 11/1)

The idea that cancer can hijack brain plasticity — subverting supple connections in the healthy brain that ordinarily lead to learning and memory formation — is gaining traction. (Cooney, 11/1)