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A small but rapidly growing number of U.S. adolescents began treatment with Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy last year, a powerful new tool to address record rates of pediatric obesity, according to data shared exclusively with Reuters. In the first 10 months of 2023, 1,268 children ages 12 to 17 with an obesity diagnosis started taking Wegovy, according to U.S. insurance claims data compiled by health technology company Komodo Health. (Respaut and Terhune, 2/15)

Erectile dysfunction medication could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study is suggesting, though some experts cast doubt on the link between the two. In a study by University College London researchers in the U.K., men who were prescribed phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, otherwise known as erectile dysfunction drugs, were 18% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease years later. (Stabile, 2/16)

An estimated 2.8 million people in the U.S. contract infections each year from bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. More than 35,000 of them die. ... Researchers at Harvard and the University of Illinois at Chicago have created a new molecule that effectively vanquished multiple types of bacteria when tested in animals. The organisms on its hit list included strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and other pathogens that have become resistant to most antibiotics currently available. The new molecule, dubbed cresomycin, was described Thursday in the journal Science. (Purtill, 2/15)

The stomach cancer study was shot through with suspicious data. Identical constellations of cells were said to depict separate experiments on wholly different biological lineages. Photos of tumor-stricken mice, used to show that a drug reduced cancer growth, had been featured in two previous papers describing other treatments. Problems with the study were severe enough that its publisher, after finding that the paper violated ethics guidelines, formally withdrew it within a few months of its publication in 2021. The study was then wiped from the internet, leaving behind a barren web page that said nothing about the reasons for its removal. (Mueller, 2/15)

Family offices for the billionaire Waltons and George Soros bought new stakes in biotechnology companies in the fourth quarter, as drug developers gain favor among wealthy investors. WIT, which stands for the Walton Investment Team, acquired an $8.2 million position in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, which develops liver disease treatments, filings show. (Massa and Stupples, 2/15)

The U.S. FDA said on Thursday it has classified a recall of Philips' medical imaging machines as most serious due to the risk of a detector in some devices unexpectedly falling on patients during scans. Philips' recall of BrightView Imaging Systems, used for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan, is to correct the faulty component and not a product removal, the health regulator said. (2/15)