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A record-high number of organizations reported healthcare data breaches in 2024 — and the first half of 2025 forecasts another challenging year for cyberattacks. As of Friday, the Health and Human Services Department’s Office for Civil Rights has listed 378 breaches affecting 500 or more individuals in the first six months of 2025. That’s fewer than the 408 reported through June in 2024, but more than all years previous. (Broderick, 7/11)

Nursing homes already struggling to recruit staff are now grappling with President Donald Trump’s attack on one of their few reliable sources of workers: immigration. Facilities for older adults and disabled people are reporting the sporadic loss of employees who have had their legal status revoked by Trump. But they fear even more dramatic impacts are ahead as pipelines of potential workers slow to a trickle with an overall downturn in legal immigration. (Sedensky, 7/13)

They face different symptoms of Long COVID, but they all share one common experience — finding answers at a clinic run by Washington University School of Medicine. For three years, Emily, 34, from St. Louis, said she suffered with crushing fatigue, nausea, a racing heart rate and difficulty breathing after getting COVID-19 in August 2020. Her first appointment with a nurse at the Care and Recovery After COVID-19 (CARE) Clinic was life changing. (Munz, 7/13)

Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders gave the thumbs-up to the company’s private-equity buyout by Sycamore Partners, with about 96% of votes cast approving the sale, the Deerfield-based retail pharmacy giant announced this morning. Under the terms of the roughly $10 billion merger agreement, Walgreens shareholders will receive $11.45 per share in cash at closing. (Asplund, 7/11)

CenterWell’s efforts to buy The Villages Health is the latest step in its cautiously optimistic growth plan amid economic uncertainty. The Humana subsidiary’s recent stalking horse bid to buy The Villages Health System as it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection would add 10 senior primary care and specialty offices to the company’s portfolio. A stalking horse bid is the initial bid on a bankrupt company’s assets that sets the floor price for other potential buyers. (Eastabrook, 7/11)

The biotechnology industry is experiencing a tectonic shift, driven by Chinese drugmakers who have come a long way from their copycat days to challenge Western dominance on innovation. The number of novel drugs in China — for cancer, weight-loss and more — entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union and nearly catching up to the US’s count of about 1,440, an exclusive Bloomberg News analysis showed. (Tong, Hong, and Chen, 7/13)