�鶹Ů��

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the oral version of Novo Nordisk’s injectable weight loss drug Wegovy, making it the first GLP-1 pill to be cleared by regulators for obesity and possibly allowing many more Americans to access a highly effective treatment. (Chen, 12/22)

The U.S. government has signed health deals with at least nine African countries, part of its new approach to global health funding, with agreements that reflect the Trump administration’s interests and priorities and are geared toward providing less aid and more mutual benefits. The agreements signed so far, with Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda among others, are the first under the new global health framework, which makes aid dependent on negotiations between the recipient country and the U.S. (Magome and Gumede, 12/22)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending $1.6 million to a Danish vaccine research group with ties to the U.S. anti-vaccine movement to study the effects of the hepatitis B vaccine in infants in West Africa. Notice of the new grant — which the University of Southern Denmark submitted to the CDC “unsolicited” — was quietly posted to a federal website last Wednesday. (Manto, 12/23)

Health care technology updates —

The Health and Human Services Department is closing out 2025 by attempting to deregulate the health technology sector. The Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued two proposed rules Monday that would scrap provisions of an unfinished health information technology rule from the previous administration and streamline HHS’ health IT certification program. (12/22)

In the technology industry, there is a proud tradition of unleashing innovations before regulators put the brakes on progress to consider concerns about safety and fairness. But in digital health under President Trump, it’s the regulators who are endorsing — even accelerating — the pace of change. (Ross, Aguilar, Palmer and Trang, 12/23)

More from the FDA —

The FDA gave the greenlight to use total hip bone mineral density (BMD) as a validated surrogate endpoint for clinical osteoporosis drug trials, the FDA announced on Friday. (Monaco, 12/22)

The FDA on Friday approved aficamten (Myqorzo) for symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), drugmaker Cytokinetics announced. Aficamten is an allosteric and reversible inhibitor of cardiac myosin motor activity that reduces cardiac contractility and left ventricular outflow tract obstruction; the drug is indicated to improve functional capacity and symptoms in adults with the symptomatic obstructive form of HCM, the most common monogenic inherited cardiovascular disorder. (Ingram, 12/22)

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb expressed concern over the Trump administration’s pending overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will release a new vaccine schedule next year that recommends fewer shots, NewsNation reported Friday. The move would bring the U.S., which recommends 72 childhood vaccines doses targeting 18 diseases, in line with Denmark, which recommends 11 doses targeting 10 diseases. (Rego, 12/22)

Also —

About a third of the US Department of Agriculture’s employees in the Washington area left the agency from January to June, as the Trump administration sought to aggressively trim what it sees as excessive government spending. More than 1,000 employees at the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters departed in the first half of the year, according to a Dec. 17 report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. About 18% of the USDA’s total employees — amounting to more than 20,000 workers — left during the period. (Peng, 12/22)

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has tapped Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, as its next chief executive officer (CEO), which some observers in the scientific community hail as a bold move that signals the society’s willingness to push back against the Trump administration’s perceived attempts to muzzle academics and health professionals who defy it. (Van Beusekom, 12/22)

Three U.S. senators have penned a letter to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs expressing apprehensions over the resumption of the agency’s EHR rollout in 2026. The project has been on hold amid technical and patient well-being issues, but the VA plans to go live with Oracle Health at 13 medical centers next year. U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., wrote Dec. 19 to VA Secretary Doug Collins, requesting a briefing to address their concerns by Jan. 19. (Bruce, 12/22)

The decision to fund 400 new medical residency positions at hospitals across the U.S. marks a meaningful -- though limited -- step toward addressing a looming physician shortage expected to worsen over the next decade, public health officials said. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last week allocated the 400 Medicare-funded residency slots to 135 hospitals in 37 states. Nearly two-thirds of the positions will support primary care and psychiatry residency programs. (McCreary, 12/22)

The medtech industry has grown beyond its pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels due to the introduction of new device categories and fresh applications for existing technologies. Large-cap medtech revenues on average grew 5% to 6% before the pandemic, have averaged 7% to 8% growth the last 10 quarters and are expected to grow about 7% going forward, said David Roman, managing director at Goldman Sachs Research, who covers U.S. medical technology and healthcare information technology. (Dubinsky, 12/22)

CVS Health shuttered faltering business units and overhauled its C-suite during a year that saw the insurance, pharmacy benefit manager and drugstore conglomerate rethink its strategy. A reset was deemed in order after earnings plummeted 45% in 2024, leading to slashed executive bonuses and nearly 3,000 layoffs. CVS Health initiated a $2 billion cost-cutting plan and considered divesting businesses. (Tong, 12/22)

Truemed, a wellness company, closed a $34 million Series A fund-raising round led by Andreessen Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer Justin Mares told Bloomberg Television. The company, which helps people use tax-advantaged health savings accounts for wellness products like exercise equipment, saunas and supplements, isn’t profitable yet, said Mares, who co-founded the company with Calley Means, a top adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Cohrs Zhang, 12/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: After Outpatient Cosmetic Surgery, They Wound Up In The Hospital Or Alone At A Recovery House
Lisa Farris worried that a nasty infection from recent liposuction and a tummy tuck was rapidly getting worse. So she phoned the cosmetic surgery center to ask if she should head to the emergency room, she alleges in a lawsuit. The nurse who took the call at the Sono Bello center in Addison, Texas, told her she “absolutely should not” go to the ER — even though Farris “had a large gush of foul fluid” leaking from the incision, according to records in the malpractice case she filed against the cosmetic surgery chain in 2024. (Schulte, 12/23)

Last week, in a landmark settlement, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California Haywood Gilliam, Jr. approved a preliminary agreement for the class action lawsuit requiring Aetna to cover fertility treatments for same-sex couples — like artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization — as they do with heterosexual couples. It is the first case requiring a health insurer to apply this policy nationally across all of its enrollees. An estimated 2.8 million LGBTQ members will benefit, including 91,000 Californians. Under the settlement, Aetna will also pay at least $2 million in damages to California-based members who qualify. (Hwang, 12/22)

Infants given the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab (Beyfortus) to provide passive immunity against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) had a lower rate of related hospitalizations and severe outcomes than those whose mothers got immunized with the RSVpreF vaccine (Abrysvo), a population-based cohort study from France indicated. (Henderson, 12/22)

A prospective cohort study from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) suggests that mpox infection during pregnancy, particularly in the first trimester, is associated with a high risk of fetal loss. The study, published late last week in The Lancet, pooled data from four studies conducted between December 2022 and June 2025 in one DRC region where mpox clade 1b is in circulation and two regions in which mpox clade 1a is endemic. (Bergeson, 12/22)

Use of benzodiazepines during pregnancy, particularly in the second trimester, was linked to some adverse pregnancy outcomes, a Taiwanese cohort study found. (Robertson, 12/22)

A new report by European health officials indicates outdated national strategies and gaps in testing are hindering European countries’ efforts to stem a continent-wide surge in sexually transmitted infections (STIs). (Dall, 12/22)

A new drug may slow progression of -- and even reverse --  symptoms of a rare form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a new study published Monday finds. The drug, tofersen, targets a very specific mutation -- SOD1 -- which applies to only 2% of the ALS population. Among this group, the drug has the potential to slow muscle degeneration by targeting SOD1 mRNA, genetic material that tells the body how to make proteins, and reduces the proteins being made. (Kekatos and Neporent, 12/22)

A once-weekly oral combination of islatravir plus lenacapavir (Sunlenca) for HIV maintained similarly high rates of virologic suppression compared with standard daily oral treatment in an open-label phase II trial. (Rudd, 12/22)

A phase 1 randomized clinical trial of a novel Nipah virus vaccine is leading to hope that there could soon be a way to prevent infection. The study found that the shots were safe and generated an immune response, according to a study published Dec. 13 in The Lancet. (Szabo, 12/22)

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) doses of at least 400 mg/day provided better symptom relief for Taiwanese people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared with lower doses, with the added benefit of less risk for cardiovascular problems, researchers said. (Gever, 12/22)

The brain goes through five distinct stages between birth and death, a new study shows. Scientists identified the average ages—9, 32, 66 and 83—when the pattern of connections inside our brains shift. The brain’s adolescence phase, they discovered, lasts until age 32, and then it enters a period of stability until early aging begins at 66. (Woodward, 12/23)

Roughly 20,000 nurses citywide are preparing to go on strike if their private hospital employers don’t agree to new labor contracts before the end of this year, setting the stage for a large-scale work stoppage across New York City’s major health systems. Approximately 97% of union members at 12 private hospitals voted to authorize a strike if they do not reach a deal with their employers by Dec. 31, when the current labor contracts expire, the New York State Nurses Association said Monday. (D'Ambrosio, 12/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: It’s The ‘Gold Standard’ In Autism Care. Why Are States Reining It In?
Aubreigh Osborne has a new best friend. Dressed in blue with a big ribbon in her blond curls, the 3-year-old sat in her mother’s lap carefully enunciating a classmate’s first name after hearing the words “best friend.” Just months ago, Gaile Osborne didn’t expect her adoptive daughter would make friends at school. Diagnosed with autism at 14 months, Aubreigh Osborne started this year struggling to control outbursts and sometimes hurting herself. Her trouble with social interactions made her family reluctant to go out in public. (Sable-Smith and Jones, 12/23)

Over the past five years, the attorney general’s office, with Aaron Frey at the helm, has secured for Maine more than $260 million in settlements with major pharmaceutical companies accused of “supercharging” the opioid epidemic. It has overseen the settlements’ distribution and contributed to efforts to help a state council and local governments spend their shares deliberately and transparently. (Bader, 12/22)

Inside a storage room at the Clark County Health Department are boxes with taped-on signs reading, “DO NOT USE.” They contain cookers and sterile water that people use to shoot up drugs. The supplies, which came from the state and were paid for with federal money, were for a program where drug users exchange dirty needles for clean ones, part of a strategy known as harm reduction. But under a July executive order from President Donald Trump, federal substance abuse grants can’t pay for supplies such as cookers and tourniquets that it says “only facilitate illegal drug use.” Needles already couldn’t be purchased with federal money. (Ungar, 12/22)

After an autumn of angst over the impending expiration at the end of the month of Porter County’s ambulance contract with Northwest Health, the county and hospital have come to a two-year agreement at an annual cost of $1.5 million for a minimum of four advanced life support and one basic life support ambulances. It’s a considerable, but expected, increase from the yearly ambulance subsidy of $450,000 the county currently pays. (Jones, 12/22)

A panel of Montana state medical board members on Friday voted unanimously to revoke the medical license of Dr. Thomas Weiner, the former Helena cancer doctor who has been accused of prescribing unnecessary treatments and harming patients. On Friday, four members of the board’s adjudication panel accepted the findings of board investigators that Weiner “violated” rules of professional conduct and prohibited him from practicing medicine in Montana ever again. (Silvers, 12/22)

Regarding health care costs —

A greater share of Americans than previously suggested experience burdensome healthcare costs, according to results from a nationally representative cohort study. Among more than 12,600 survey participants, 6.5% said they experienced cost burdens and 3.5% said they experienced catastrophic cost burdens in year 1. (Firth, 12/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Medical Bills Can Be Vexing And Perplexing. Here’s This Year’s Best Advice For Patients
A Texas boy’s second dose of the MMRV vaccine cost over $1,400. A Pennsylvania woman’s long-acting birth control cost more than $14,000. Treatment for a Florida Medicaid enrollee’s heart attack cost nearly $78,000 — about as much as surgery for an uninsured Montana woman’s broken arm. In 2025, these patients were among the hundreds who asked �鶹Ů�� Health News to investigate their medical bills as part of its “Bill of the Month” series. (Huetteman, 12/23)

Target Corp., Whole Foods Market and Walmart Inc. will be added as defendants in lawsuits against baby formula maker ByHeart for selling a product potentially contaminated with spores that cause infant botulism. Bill Marler, a prominent foodborne-illness attorney who is suing ByHeart on behalf of families whose babies were hospitalized with botulism, said Sunday he plans to add the grocery store chains to the lawsuits this week. (Edney, 12/22)

Flu, measles, and covid developments —

Doctors and scientists say this year's influenza season could be tougher than usual. A new version of the flu virus, called H3N2, is spreading quickly. At the same time, fewer people are getting flu shots. "This flu season is no joke. We are seeing more cases than we would expect for this time of year," Dr. Amanda Kravitz, a pediatrician at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said on "CBS Mornings." Specifically, she explained, "we are seeing influenza A, and within influenza A we are seeing a subtype or variant called H3N2." (Gounder, 12/22)

The state health department has identified another case of measles, this time in Park County. The vaccinated adult had “extensive exposure" to the virus while abroad and developed a mild case that didn’t require hospitalization, per the health department. (Ouellet, 12/22)

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed last week that the recent detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a Wisconsin dairy herd represents a new spillover event from wildlife. (Dall, 12/22)

While the mortality gap between COVID-19 and influenza has narrowed since the onset of the pandemic, COVID continues to carry a substantially higher short-term risk of death than seasonal flu despite the availability of a COVID vaccine, according to a large population-based cohort study from South Korea. (Bergeson, 12/22)

At the end of a year of escalating measles outbreaks and on the verge of the United States losing its measles elimination status, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) published a new poll showing that compared to last year, fewer Americans are willing recommend their family member receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. (Soucheray, 12/22)

Mental health notes —

Nearly one in two transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth reported suicidal ideation or self-injury, and one in four attempted suicide, a global meta-analysis showed. (Monaco, 12/22)

Though the exact causes of seasonal affective disorder, also known as seasonal depression, are not completely understood, Dr. Robert Brady, associate professor of psychology at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, said it is the recurrence of depressive symptoms with a seasonal pattern. (Richardson, 12/22)

Long-term exposure to pollution from fine particulate matter and its major components -- soil dust, sulfate, and elemental carbon -- correlated with a greater risk of depression among older adults, a U.S. study showed. (Phend, 12/22)

High school senior Talia Joseph was taking a test at St. Mary’s Academy when she got a call saying that her family members had seen immigration enforcement officers in their neighborhood in Gretna. Joseph is an American citizen but ever since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown has begun in greater New Orleans, she said she has been worried about her family members who are not. Joseph said she has undocumented relatives on both sides of her family. Her father’s family is from Grenada and her mother’s is from Honduras. (Syed, 12/22)

Trailblazers —

The first thing Abraham Morgentaler learned about testosterone is that it’s a brain hormone. It was in a lab at Harvard, while an undergraduate in the late 1970s, where he had this realization: A castrated male lizard put in a cage with a female would not perform its mating ritual and would be uninterested in the female; but the same lizard, dosed with testosterone in the areas of the brain sensitive to testosterone, would — its dewlap coming out, head bobbing. (Merelli, 12/23)

In 2018, I wrote a profile of a patient advocate named Adam Hayden. A few years earlier, at the age of 34, soon after he and his wife had had their third child, Adam was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. I saw the story as a way to write about how people with fatal diagnoses navigate decisions on how to spend their remaining time. (Joseph, 12/22)

A paraplegic engineer from Germany blasted off on a dream-come-true rocket ride with five other passengers Saturday, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while beholding Earth from on high. Severely injured in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user in space, launching from West Texas with Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. (Dunn, 12/20)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: An Arm and a Leg’ Podcast: A Few More Good Things From 2025
'An Arm and a Leg' host Dan Weissmann breaks down how two states passed laws aimed at protecting people from things like medical debt, insurance delays and denials, and corporate profiteering. (Weissmann, 12/23)

With humanitarian funding slashed by the US and other countries, including the UK, this year’s global health headlines have made grim reading. But good things have still been happening in vaccine research and the development of new and improved treatments for some of the most intractable illnesses. (Lay, 12/22)

In March 2022, a Canadian attorney lost two of his children in a deadly car crash in Clay County while the family was returning home from a Florida vacation. Pieter Kort recently returned to UF Health Jacksonville, which cared for him, wife Jamie and two surviving children Ethan, then 15, and Hannah, then 16, after the crash. He made a $20,000 donation to the hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. (Reese Cravey, 12/22)

Santa has arrived early in Idaho—in the form of a mystery donor who is giving away a million dollars to families in crisis. ... One of the earliest gifts was a 2025 Honda minivan and $1,000 for a family that has conjoined twins, which occurs about once in every 50,000 births. (Frederick, 12/21)

Medicaid is a federal program jointly funded with the states, providing health and long-term care insurance to more than 80 million low-income Americans. And if you didn’t know all of that, you’re not alone. The government has spent a fortune over the years de-emphasizing the term “Medicaid,” instead promoting other names that carry less of a stigma. The idea has been to encourage eligible Americans to sign up for benefits they otherwise might reject out of confusion, pride or political philosophy. (12/22)

The Trump administration had adopted policies condemning a sizable group of its core MAGA supporters — miners, firemen, manufacturing workers — to slow deaths from diseases that cut off their ability to breathe. (Thomas B. Edsall, 12/23)

At a press conference earlier this year, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo compared vaccine mandates to slavery: “If we want to move toward a perfect world, a better world, we can’t do it by enslaving people in terrible philosophies and taking away people’s freedoms. That’s not the path … we have to find alternative pathways.” (Sarah Despres, 12/23)

A new review published in JAMA, which attempted to examine every high-quality study from the last 15 years alongside guidelines from major medical societies, came to a sobering conclusion: For most uses, the evidence was limited or inconclusive. In many cases, medical organizations recommend against using cannabis because the evidence for harm outweighed potential benefits. (Leana S. Wen, 12/23)

Through the holiday season, there will be many families who share a table with someone who has Alzheimer’s or some other version of dementia, who might not grasp what the holiday is. They see people around them and a table laden with food, but they don’t know why everyone is there and, frankly, they don’t care what the reason is. What they do pick up on are the emotional currents that drift around many holiday tables. When a person’s cognition is splintered or absent, they are absorbing the emotions around them with no filter to protect them. They can’t tell themselves, “Well, these two love each other but they disagree politically,” or “There is messy family history between those relatives.” Please don’t tell yourself you can say whatever you want around them because they don’t understand. They may not understand the content, but they very much understand the emotion, and it can be scary. (Patti Davis, 12/23)