Author: healthadmin
Rhythm Pharmaceuticals is accelerating the development of Imcivree, a melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) agonist. First approved more than five years ago as a treatment for certain patients with inherited obesity, the drug is moving into another broader area with FDA approval for acquired hypothalamic obesity (HO). Acquired HO, for which Imcivree is the first approved treatment, represents an “expanded way of thinking” about the weight-regulating MC4R pathway that Rhythm’s products target, chief scientific officer Dr. Alastair Garfield explained in a recent interview with Fierce. Until now, all of Imcivree’s approved uses have centered on specific genetic causes. In HO, on…
Deep within Greenland’s vast ice sheet, scientists have discovered an unusual chemical signal that has sparked years of debate. At the heart of the mystery is a sudden rise in platinum levels found in ice cores (cylinders of ice dug out of ice sheets and glaciers) that date back approximately 12,800 years. This discovery was once considered evidence that Earth may have been hit by a rare meteorite or comet. New findings suggest a much more realistic explanation. The platinum spikes may have come from an eruption of a volcanic fissure in Iceland rather than an object from space. Young…
Healthcare systems and insurance companies are entering a new era of artificial intelligence implementation, but given how fast technology and markets move, purchasing strategies have yet to catch up. Many people are buying AI the same way they bought software 10 years ago. That means one tool, one use case, one department at a time. The result of today’s rapidly changing market is a hodgepodge of vendors, pilot purgatory, increased integration complexity, and uncertain return on investment. Moving from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment requires healthcare leaders to rethink how they evaluate, procure, and manage AI across their organizations. This change…
A secondary analysis of data collected in 75 countries found that connection to nature is a robust predictor of happiness. Connection with nature was found to be associated with various aspects of well-being. The paper was published in. Journal of Environmental Psychology. The relationship between humans and nature is an important component of both human health and environmental health. The degree to which an individual feels emotionally and cognitively connected to the natural world is referred to as nature connectivity. It reflects a sense of belonging to nature, rather than seeing oneself as separate from it. People who are highly…
Good morning and happy Friday. I’m off today, but I’ll talk next week. Highlights from yesterday’s summit For me, the best moment of yesterday’s event may have been the few seconds of silence after STAT’s Lizzie Lawrence asked Medicare Director Chris Klomp how he and other HHS leaders are combating the high levels of turnover and dissatisfaction at the FDA. “Great people take time to develop, and great teams take time to work together,” Klomp ultimately said. Read more about what else Klomp said about drug pricing and Medicare Advantage in a conversation with Mario Aguilar by STAT’s Tara Banau.…
Researchers at Massachusetts General Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report that a single dose of oncolytic viruses, genetically engineered viruses designed to infect and kill cancer cells, can draw immune cells deep into brain tumors, where they remain active. Their discovery is celldescribes how this approach improved survival rates for patients with glioblastoma, the most aggressive and common form of primary brain cancer, in a recent clinical trial. “Patients with glioblastoma do not benefit from the immunotherapies that have changed patient care for other types of cancer, such as melanoma, because glioblastoma is a ‘cold’ tumor with poor infiltration of…
Main papers published in lancet Studies have reported that medicinal cannabis does not effectively treat anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This analysis is the largest to date examining both the safety and effectiveness of cannabinoids in a wide range of mental health conditions. These findings come at a time when the use of cannabis for medical purposes is widespread. Approximately 27% of 16- to 65-year-olds in the United States and Canada report using cannabis for medical purposes, and about half of them say they use cannabis to manage mental health symptoms. Lead author Dr Jack Wilson, from the…
Facing patent cliffs threatening billions in revenue, pharma leaders must embrace 2026 trends in AI drug discovery, biopharma manufacturing, clinical pipelines, and FDA approvals to drive innovation.
Standing in a 1960s industrial building on Germany’s Baltic coast, Florian Gross moves toward a corner of the room, dosimeter in hand. A beeping sound begins to sound furiously. “That’s about 10 microsieverts,” he says, wearing a hazmat suit. Typical dose rates are less than 0.2 microsieverts. “This is an area where you should probably stay one meter apart. You shouldn’t be standing or lying down here for an hour,” warns Gross, the radiation protection worker, in an eerily cheerful tone. Inside this special building, one of the former nuclear power plants, some of the walls are uneven and pockmarked.…
Being ignored without explanation tends to cause more psychological distress than direct rejection. New research published in Computers in human behavior provide evidence that although ghosting and explicit rejection are both hurtful, the uncertainty of ghosting slows a person’s emotional recovery. This study suggests that clear communication during a breakup, even through casual digital interactions, can help people process the event and move on more easily. Ghosting is the act of unilaterally ending a relationship by cutting off all communication without providing any explanation. This has become incredibly common in the digital age, especially on dating apps and social media…