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Sanofi plans to seek U.S. approval for it best-selling anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent to be used in the treatment of "smoker's lung", also known as COPD, after a second large trial showed significant benefits. Sanofi, which is collaborating on the drug with Regeneron, said in a statement on Monday that a second Dupixent phase 3 trial for COPD, short for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, showed the drug reduced exacerbations of the disease by 34%. (Burger, 11/27)

GSK said on Monday that its blood cancer drug Blenrep had reached a key goal in a late-stage trial, potentially providing a boost to the British drugmaker's cancer unit after a series of setbacks. The drug, when combined with existing drug bortezomib plus steroid dexamethasone, significantly extended the time before the disease progressed, or the patients died, in those suffering from relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma - the third most common type of blood cancer which is considered difficult to treat. (11/27)

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Plymouth and published in the journal Microbiology, examined the effect of clinical concentrations of sodium hypochlorite disinfectant (NaOCL) on C difficile spores, which can survive on hospital surfaces for months. C difficile is the leading cause of healthcare-associated diarrhea, and causes an estimated 29,000 deaths in the United States and 8,382 in Europe each year. While chlorine-releasing agents are used in the disinfection of fluid spills, blood, and feces in UK hospitals, recent studies have found signs of emerging sporicidal resistance. (Dall, 11/22)

You've heard about donating blood, plasma, or even organs. But there's a bio-pharmaceutical company in Roseville that's offering money for people to donate their stool. Ignacio Cabrera helps lead Rebiotix's donor program, in which people drop by to drop off a donation; people poop in one of their bathrooms and then get paid for it. "We're really embracing the awkwardness of this. It's uncomfortable to speak about poop - just saying poop sometimes is awkward, it's funny, but it's helpful here," he said. (Wagner, 11/22)

Weight-loss drugs are everywhere these days. At the Oscars earlier this year, host Jimmy Kimmel worked Ozempic into his opening monologue. Ads for Wegovy have become a regular feature of the New York City subway system. And Zepbound, a new weight-loss drug making its US debut any day now, is entering a market where it’s all but guaranteed to become an overnight success. But the typical TV ads and catchy jingles aren’t what’s behind the frenzy over appetite-suppressing drugs from Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. Big Pharma, in fact, has hardly had to lift a finger. (Muller and Li,. 11/27)

There's an emerging debate around a popular class of anti-obesity drugs: whether patients who go on them can ever expect to stop taking them. The drugs represent an important shift in treating obesity as a chronic disease, but that has costly implications. Much of the tension around the drugs' long-term use is being driven by the insurers paying for them and clinicians who prescribe them. (Reed, 11/27)

The American Red Cross has long been recognized as the universal symbol of humanitarian services —and it’s an expensive operation. In 2022, the American Red Cross generated more than $3.2 billion in operating revenue and spent just over $3 billion in expenses the same year, according to its financial statements. Contributions only make up about a third of the organization’s revenue. (Lee, 11/26)