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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is responsible for developing recommendations for the use of licensed vaccines in the U.S. and has vast influence on immunization practices and financing.

But in the past year its members were summarily replaced by the secretary of Health and Human Services and its processes disrupted. The participation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientific experts in meetings was curtailed, and the Food and Drug Administration’s liaison representative, normally a senior vaccine expert, was replaced by a political appointee.

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There’s a schism in America’s drug business, playing out in punchy direct messages, feisty group chats, and the occasional heated in-person exchange.

The problem is China. Fledgling startups and pharmaceutical giants alike are addicted to Chinese drugs, filling their pipelines with would-be blockbusters developed at enviable speed and bought on the cheap. They’ve spent some $60 billion on Chinese molecules in the first three months of 2026 alone, according to state figures. That’s on pace to double last year’s total, which was already 10 times larger than the one from 2021.

No one disagrees that it’s good business. And more drugs moving swiftly through development means hope for patients around the world desperately awaiting new medicines.

But, according to more than a dozen interviews with industry executives and investors, the question of whether to partner with Chinese firms — or see them as rivals — is tearing biotech apart, pitting peers and partners against one another and souring relationships in an otherwise close-knit corporate community.  

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The Trump administration has made sweeping changes to vaccine policy over the past year justified by invocations of patients’ “personal autonomy.” In January, Department of Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump’s slashed the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11 after an HHS report emphasized “personal autonomy and self-determination” as key principles necessitating reconsideration of the childhood vaccine schedule.

That same month, Trump’s new head of the federal government’s vaccine panel opined that all childhood vaccines might be optional in schools on similar reasoning: “What we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order,” Kirk Milhoan said, noting that we allow people to make various choices, like unhealthy alcohol consumption, even if there are risks.

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A number of Americans who are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are believed to have had exposure to suspected cases in the country’s latest Ebola outbreak, with several deemed to have had high-risk exposures, sources have told STAT. At least one of these individuals may have developed symptoms.

One source said that there are not yet test results for any of the individuals, but the U.S. government is reportedly trying to arrange to transport them out of the DRC to somewhere they can be safely quarantined, and cared for, if they prove to have been infected. It’s not clear if that would be in the United States; there is some discussion of perhaps taking the individuals to an American military base in Germany, a source said.

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Two advocacy groups are demanding the United Kingdom revoke regulations at the heart of a new trade agreement with the U.S. over concerns the deal will allow outsiders to influence official decisions about the cost-effectiveness of medicines. And if the government does not comply, the groups are readying legal action.

Under the trade agreement that covers pharmaceuticals, which was finalized last month, the Trump administration committed to impose zero tariffs on medicines exported from the U.K. for at least three years. The deal is significant because it would make the U.K. the only country with tariff-free access for medicines to the U.S. market.

In return, the U.K. government took steps to appease the pharmaceutical industry, which is a key part of its economy, by pledging to increase spending on medicines from 0.3% of GDP to 0.35% by 2028 and then to 0.6% by 2035. At the same time, the U.K.’s National Health Service will increase the prices paid for by medicines by 25% and slash the maximum rebate it can claw back from drugmakers to 15%.

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By Julia Parker — JBizNews Desk

A peer-reviewed analysis published last month in Nature Reviews Endocrinology is intensifying scrutiny around what many researchers now view as the most important unresolved risk tied to the blockbuster Ozempic-class weight-loss drugs: significant muscle loss accompanying rapid reductions in body fat.

The paper, led by researcher Henning T. Langer, reviewed growing evidence that patients taking obesity injections such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound can lose substantial amounts of skeletal muscle alongside fat — a dynamic increasingly shaping the next multibillion-dollar phase of the pharmaceutical obesity market.

According to the review, as much as 25% to 40% of total weight lost on leading GLP-1 and dual-action obesity drugs may come from lean body mass rather than fat tissue alone. That finding is now driving a wave of investment into so-called “muscle-preserving” obesity therapies as drugmakers race to improve what physicians increasingly call the “quality” of weight loss rather than simply the quantity.

The concern is rooted in clinical trial data already embedded inside the industry’s biggest products.

In Novo Nordisk’s pivotal STEP-1 trial for semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy — patients lost roughly 15% of body weight on average, while body-composition scans showed lean mass declines accounting for approximately 40% to 45% of total pounds shed.

Eli Lilly’s SURMOUNT-1 trial for tirzepatide — marketed as Mounjaro and Zepbound — produced even greater average weight reduction of roughly 21%, though lean mass losses represented closer to 25% of total weight lost.

Doctors broadly agree the drugs deliver major metabolic and cardiovascular benefits, including improvements in blood sugar, blood pressure, and heart-disease risk. But geriatric specialists are increasingly warning that rapid weight loss in older patients can create a condition known as “sarcopenic obesity,” where body weight improves on paper while muscle function and physical strength deteriorate underneath.

That risk is colliding directly with surging adoption rates.

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said earlier this year during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box that between 20 million and 25 million people are currently taking obesity and diabetes medications from the two dominant manufacturers. Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar estimated the obesity-treatment population alone at roughly 15 million patients between the companies, while noting that approximately 110 million Americans are believed to live with obesity overall.

The demographic overlap worries researchers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 40% of Americans over age 60 qualified as obese in 2023 — the same age group already most vulnerable to age-related muscle deterioration and frailty.

The financial stakes surrounding the market are enormous. Analysts at Barclays estimate the obesity-drug sector could generate roughly $150 billion annually within the next decade.

Eli Lilly projected 2026 revenue between $80 billion and $83 billion earlier this year, surpassing Wall Street expectations. Novo Nordisk, by contrast, warned of potential sales pressure after both companies agreed to “most favored nation” pricing arrangements negotiated with President Donald Trump last November, agreements expected to lower U.S. prices while expanding Medicare obesity-drug coverage later this year.

The next frontier in the obesity industry is increasingly focused on preserving muscle while maximizing fat loss.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals presented data last year from its Phase 2 COURAGE trial showing that combining semaglutide with its experimental antibody trevogrumab preserved roughly 50% to 80% of the lean muscle mass typically lost during treatment with obesity drugs alone.

George D. Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s president and chief scientific officer, said the results demonstrated that blocking specific muscle-regulation pathways “can preserve muscle and further increase fat loss” when combined with Ozempic-style therapies.

The race has rapidly expanded across the industry.

Eli Lilly paid up to $1.9 billion in 2023 to acquire Versanis Bio and its muscle-preservation drug candidate bimagrumab. Phase 2b BELIEVE trial data presented at the American Diabetes Association last year showed the bimagrumab-semaglutide combination generated roughly 22.1% total weight loss, with nearly 93% of that reduction attributed specifically to fat rather than lean tissue.

Although Lilly later halted one of its mid-stage bimagrumab studies for what it described as “strategic business reasons,” the broader program remains active.

Other biotechnology firms including Scholar Rock, Biohaven, Veru, and Wave Life Sciences are also developing muscle-sparing therapies designed to pair with GLP-1 drugs. Wave Life Sciences CEO Paul Bolno recently told CNBC the company believes its experimental therapy could potentially “double the weight loss” achieved with obesity drugs while preserving strength and muscle quality.

For now, physicians are increasingly emphasizing lifestyle interventions alongside the medications themselves.

Researchers and geriatric specialists recommend resistance training and elevated protein intake — generally between 1.6 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily — to reduce muscle deterioration during rapid weight loss. Existing clinical studies suggest those interventions can reduce lean-mass decline by approximately 15% to 20%.

Another growing concern is weight cycling.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen recently highlighted data involving more than 125,000 patients showing that between 46% and 65% of users discontinued obesity-drug treatment within 12 months. Separate meta-analysis data found that patients regained an average of roughly 21 pounds within about a year after stopping therapy.

The biological problem is asymmetrical: fat often returns faster than muscle can be rebuilt. Repeated cycles of loss and regain could therefore leave some patients physically weaker over time even if their body weight temporarily improves.

That dynamic is increasingly reshaping how pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and investors think about the obesity market itself.

The next generation of obesity medicine may no longer be judged simply by how much weight patients lose, but by how much strength, mobility, and muscle they manage to keep.

JBizNews Desk

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WASHINGTON — The deadly outbreak of a rare strain of hantavirus on a cruise has generated echoes of the pandemic era, including a reprise of a familiar drumbeat of questionable theories from social media personalities prominent for their Covid-19 skepticism.

At the moment, ironically, the public health establishment and the conspiracists challenging it actually seem to agree on the big picture: Hantavirus is not like the Covid-19 virus, and for now, the risk to the general public remains low.

But the speed at which a handful of people who became influential amid Covid-19 have begun recycling theories, from baseless suggestions about the origin of the current outbreak to unproven treatments, illustrates a new reality for any emerging public health threat.

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WASHINGTON — Deciding when to get routine mammograms is confusing. Some health groups recommend women begin at age 40 or 45 while another recently opted for age 50. They also differ on whether yearly or every other year is best.

The conflicting advice is at least partly because guidelines for breast cancer screening are designed for women at average risk and with no possible cancer symptoms. But breast cancer is so common that it is hard to know who is really “average” and how to balance the pros and cons of screening.

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NEW ORLEANS — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is fighting for his political life in Louisiana’s Republican primary on Saturday as he faces a challenge backed by President Donald Trump, the latest attempt by the president to purge the party of politicians he views as disloyal.

Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow over Cassidy, in an unusual attempt to dislodge an incumbent senator. Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, stemming from the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Cassidy, a doctor, has also clashed with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy, even though he provided crucial support to help Kennedy get confirmed.

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Bill Cassidy, a key Republican health care leader in the Senate, will lose his seat, as Louisiana’s Senate primary heads for a runoff between state treasurer John Fleming and Rep. Julia Letlow, who won President Trump’s endorsement.

In initial election results, Letlow leads with just over 44% of the vote, followed by Fleming with just over 28% percent of the vote. Cassidy came in at 24.8% of the vote. The president has endorsed Letlow, a Trump loyalist who became a proponent for the Covid-19 vaccine in 2021 following the death of her husband to Covid. 

Cassidy’s defeat is a win for President Trump and his allies, who have criticized the senator for voting in 2021 to convict the president for inciting the January 6 insurrection. Later, Cassidy came into conflict with the administration when he expressed concerns with anti-vaccine statements made by then-health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before ultimately voting to confirm him. 

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The numbers came out quietly. On April 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that the U.S. general fertility rate fell to 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 2025, another record low and 23% below the 2007 peak. Total births dropped about 1% year over year to roughly 3,606,400, with 22,534 fewer babies registered than a year earlier. The teen birth rate fell 7% to 11.7 per 1,000, down more than 72% since 2007.

Behind the small annual decline sits a much larger economic story, one that is already moving capital, reshaping household budgets, and forcing federal forecasters in Washington to rewrite their long-range models. The CDC report shows births rising only among women in their 30s and 40s; for women under 30, the rate fell sharply, with the 20-to-24 cohort dropping to 52.2 per 1,000 from 55.8 a year earlier. The U.S. fertility rate, which sat at 2.12 in 2007, is now near 1.6 and falling. The Congressional Budget Office, in its January 2026 Demographic Outlook, projects the rate will dip to 1.58 this year and to 1.53 by 2036, with annual U.S. deaths set to exceed births starting in 2030.

The proximate driver, according to most of the economists studying it, is affordability. LendingTree, citing data from Child Care Aware of America, calculated that the average annual cost of care for an infant and a four-year-old now runs $28,190 nationwide. To meet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ definition of affordable childcare — no more than 7% of household income — a two-child family would need to earn $402,708 a year. The average two-child household earns $145,656, requiring a 176.5% raise to close the gap.

“With numbers like these, it’s easy to see why birth rates are falling,” said Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree. “Many Americans are saying that having kids doesn’t make financial sense.”

Other expenses compound the squeeze. An updated USDA-derived estimate puts the cost of raising a child from birth through age 18 at roughly $303,418, a 28% jump since 2023. Housing accounts for 29% of that total, childcare and education another 18%. The Brigham Young University American Family Survey released last year found that 71% of U.S. adults disagreed with the notion that having children was affordable for most people, and 43% cited insufficient financial resources as being a barrier.

The national average masks sharp local variation. According to data released by the New Jersey Department of Health and compiled by Rabbi Shlomo Schorr, legislative director of Agudath Israel of New Jersey, 5,420 babies were born in Lakewood Township in 2024, the highest of any municipality in the state and the fourth consecutive year the town surpassed 5,000 births — more than Newark, the state’s largest city, despite Newark having roughly double the population.

Lakewood, anchored by the country’s largest Orthodox Jewish community, has a median age of roughly 18 years and average family sizes far above the national norm. The financial pressure on those families is, if anything, steeper than the national picture: with roughly 42,000 students enrolled in private yeshivas, Orthodox parents in Lakewood shoulder tuition costs that range from roughly $18,140 on average for elementary school to $25,000 per child at some yeshivos, on top of the broader cost-of-living squeeze — and entirely out of pocket, since the families pay public school taxes while none of their tuition is covered by state education funding.

That communities are continuing to grow against those numbers points to a variable the standard economic models do not capture.

Duvi Honig, founder and chief executive of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, said the Lakewood data reflects a counterforce that financial incentives alone cannot replicate.

“Religion is what the president is fighting to protect, and it is the one force strong enough to reverse the woke ideology that has convinced a generation that marriage and children are not worth the cost,” Honig said. “When religious values are restored, the financial math does not get any easier, but the priorities change. You will see Christian and religious communities across America begin to grow again.”

The macroeconomic implications of the broader national decline are no longer theoretical.

IMPLAN, the regional economic modeling firm, estimated that the 2025 fertility slowdown alone will subtract $103.9 billion from U.S. gross domestic product, $86.2 billion in household spending, and 740,000 jobs that would otherwise have existed.

“An economy requires a steady stream of people who work, spend money, and replace those who retire,” said Nadège Ngomsi, an economist at IMPLAN. “When the birth rate falls and immigration slows, this necessary talent supply dries up.”

The Congressional Budget Office projects that the ratio of working-age Americans to those 65 and older will fall from 2.7 today to roughly 2.2 by 2040, intensifying pressure on Social Security and Medicare.

Corporate America is already adjusting.

Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies, cut 5,000 jobs in 2018 with its chief executive acknowledging that diaper demand in mature markets had peaked; Procter & Gamble launched its Always Discreet adult incontinence line to offset structural decline in the Pampers franchise.

Carter’s, the largest U.S. children’s apparel brand, has seen revenue fall roughly 17% from its 2019 peak.

In toys, the flip is even starker: adults overtook the preschool segment as the largest buyer category last year, with LEGO doubling revenue over the past decade by targeting adult collectors and Hasbro now drawing more than 60% of its sales from consumers age 13 and older.

Policymakers are scrambling.

Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded the federal child tax credit and lifted the cap on dependent care flexible spending accounts to $7,500 from $5,000. The White House issued an executive order earlier this year expanding access to in vitro fertilization, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has publicly pushed for what he called a “Trump baby” boom.

International experience suggests the levers move slowly: France, which spends a larger share of GDP on family support than any other major economy, has watched its fertility rate slide from 2.0 to 1.68 anyway. Japan, the cautionary tale most often cited, averaged 0.83% annual GDP growth from 1991 to 2019 against the U.S. average of 2.53% over the same span.

The bottom line for American families is that the decision to have a child has become, in measurable dollar terms, one of the most expensive financial commitments a household can make.

The bottom line for the U.S. economy is that the consequences of millions of such individual decisions are now flowing into corporate revenue forecasts, federal entitlement projections, and labor force math that will shape the next half century.

JBizNews Desk
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The World Health Organization late Saturday declared the outbreak of Ebola that was first seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo an international public health emergency, underscoring the concern about the spread of the virus as travel-related cases were reported in the capital city of Kinshasa as well as in Kampala, Uganda.

The speed with which the emergency issuance was made — African health officials only confirmed the outbreak on Friday — is unusual, but highlights the fear that authorities are behind the virus. 

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On Tuesday, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary resigned from his position, leaving a vacancy at the top of the agency to match the turnover already challenging its drug and biologics divisions.

It was just a year ago that Makary joined Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya on the X platform to triumphantly announce in a 58-second video that the Covid-19 vaccine would no longer be routinely recommended for healthy pregnant women and children. The video exuded the elation of Covid response skeptics at long last grabbing the reins of power.

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Below is a lightly edited, AI-generated transcript of the “First Opinion Podcast” interview with Shelley Wood and Eric Topol. Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the “First Opinion Podcast” newsletter. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter, delivered every Sunday.

Torie Bosch: Twenty-five years ago, before peptides and biohackers were mainstream conversation, there were the blue zones: communities isolated geographically where residents reportedly lived far longer than average. Since then, the concept of the blue zone has exploded, influencing today’s longevity movement. But does the science hold up?

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Takeda Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $13.6 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe an antidepressant and, consequently, violated federal law by causing Medicaid to pay false claims, the U.S. Department of Justice said in announcing the settlement.

From January 2014 to October 2020, the company allegedly offered speaking fees and paid for meals at “high-end” restaurants to persuade physicians to prescribe Trintellix. Moreover, certain doctors who attended multiple programs on the same topic and received meals and drinks did not gain any educational benefit from attending the programs.

“This settlement demonstrates the continued commitment of my office to ensure that patients’ best interests remain paramount,” Eric Grant, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement. “Prescribing decisions should not be influenced by drug companies’ payments or side perks made available to physicians.”

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In a discussion about the best fruits, my STAT colleague Alexa Lee and I agreed that peaches have been mid in recent years. Is this just a New York City problem? Please dial in with your fruit feelings.

You know what’s not mid? STAT’s excellent journalism on health and medicine. Subscribe here.

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On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that one of the drugs in a highly effective two-drug regime for medication abortion can remain accessible via telehealth and mail — for now.

The decision comes after a chaotic weekend in April in which the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibited providers from remotely prescribing or mailing mifepristone. The plaintiff in the case is the state of Louisiana, which claims that telehealth prescribing of a mifepristone undermines that state’s strict abortion ban. The 5th Circuit ruled that former Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) prohibiting remote prescribing of mifepristone, which the Food and Drug Administration lifted in 2021, should be reinstated while Louisiana’s case proceeds. The Supreme Court has now reversed that order — although the case will continue to make its way through the courts.

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And so, another working week will soon draw to a close. Not a moment too soon, yes? This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda is still shaping up, but we expect to drop in at a few musical happenings, promenade with the official mascots, and hang with the Pharmalot ancestor. We also will be making time for yet another listening party, where the rotation will likely include this, this, this, this and this. And what about you? Once again, we will remind you that this is a fabulous time to enjoy the great outdoors. An added bonus, of course, is you can get some exercise, too. If the weather fails to cooperate, though, you could visit your local library and curl up with a good book. Or take in a moving picture show at whatever cinema may still exist in your part of the world. If none of this sounds appealing, well, you could simply plan the rest of your life. Whatever you do, have a grand time. But be safe. Enjoy, and see you soon …

Over a recent breakfast, U.S. officials had a message for the German ambassador: pay more for pharmaceuticals, STAT reports. The meeting, between U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, chief health department adviser Chris Klomp, and German Ambassador Jens Hanefeld, was part of a larger push from the Trump administration to get other countries to pay more for medications as the U.S. pays less, according to a person familiar with the meeting. The U.S. officials discussed the possible use of tariffs under Section 301, which grants the government authority to combat trade practices considered “unfair.” The move would be similar to the tactic of threatening new tariffs to get other countries to pay more for drugs. The ambassador agreed to review the matter with officials in Germany, but no deal was made.

Some U.S. biotech companies are considering moving early-stage trials of new medicines outside the United States as worry grows that layoffs and policy changes at the drugs watchdog under the Trump administration may delay regulatory reviews, according to Reuters. Mass layoffs, leadership exits, and the restructuring of the FDA under President Trump are prompting some smaller biotechs to rethink traditional pathways for bringing new medicines to market. Reuters spoke to seven biotech executives, investors, and consultants who said that the staff departures and policy changes at the FDA had prompted some firms to consider launching trials in other international markets — such as the European Union and Australia — and engaging with regulators in those regions earlier in the drug development process.

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Good morning. Congrats on making it to the end of the week!

U.S. officials pressured Germany to pay more for drugs

Trump administration officials told the German ambassador to the United States at a recent meeting that the European country should pay more for medicines, according to a person familiar with the encounter.

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KINSHASA, Congo — Africa’s top public health body on Friday confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s remote Ituri province, with 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths recorded so far.

The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

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The reports emerging this week of a major Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, coming alongside a growing hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship in South America, should serve as another warning that the era of emerging infectious diseases is not ahead of us. We are already living in it.

According to Africa CDC, the Ebola outbreak in Ituri Province has already resulted in 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths, with preliminary testing suggesting a non-Zaire ebolavirus strain. The agency has raised concerns about spread driven by population movement, political and health insecurity in affected areas due to violence, gaps in contact tracing, health care-associated transmission, population movement, and limited infection prevention and control capacity.

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JERUSALEM — WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has donated $200 million to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem through The Koum Family Foundation, the largest single gift in the history of Israel’s healthcare system and a sum that will triple the physical footprint of one of Israel’s largest hospitals, according to the hospital’s announcement and reporting confirmed across The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, eJewishPhilanthropy, and Globes. The institution will be officially renamed Koum Shaare Zedek Medical Center in honor of the gift, marking the first time in the hospital’s 124-year history that the Shaare Zedek name will be combined with a donor’s name.

The donation will fund the construction of a 24-story medical tower spanning more than 1.5 million square feet at the hospital’s existing Bayit Vegan campus in west Jerusalem. According to architectural plans developed by Mochly-Eldar Architects with construction management by Margolin Bros., the new tower will house significantly expanded surgical and emergency-care facilities, large underground protected spaces engineered for “developing regional threats,” on-site housing for medical staff, and a rooftop helipad for direct helicopter access. The project has already received approvals from the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality and is reported to be advancing rapidly through the city’s planning institutions. Shaare Zedek currently operates approximately 1,000 beds; the expansion is expected to roughly triple total capacity.

Koum, 50, was born in Kyiv and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He co-founded WhatsApp in 2009 with Brian Acton and sold the messaging platform to Meta Platforms Inc. — then Facebook Inc. — in 2014 for approximately $19 billion. The acquisition remains one of the largest private-technology deals in history and made Koum one of the wealthiest individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has since divided his time between California and Europe and has become one of the most active major donors in American Jewish philanthropy, supporting Bay Area community institutions, Russian-speaking Jewish community programs, Stanford University’s Israel studies program, AIPAC, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel on Campus Coalition, the Maccabee Task Force, Friends of Ir David, and the Central Fund of Israel. The new gift to Shaare Zedek follows a $50 million Koum Family Foundation donation last year to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba after the complex sustained a direct hit from an Iranian ballistic missile in June 2025 that caused heavy damage to the hospital’s surgical wing and laboratories.

“We are proud to partner with Shaare Zedek Medical Center, an institution that defines medical excellence in Jerusalem and beyond. This gift reflects our confidence in a future of medical innovation and research that will benefit patients in Israel and around the world,” Koum said in a statement issued by the hospital. Shaare Zedek President Prof. Jonathan Halevy called the gift “truly a special moment in Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s 124-year-old history” and said the donation reflected “remarkable confidence in our hospital, our staff, the city of Jerusalem, the nation of Israel, and a heartfelt embrace of Zionism.” Shaare Zedek Director-General Prof. Ofer Merin described the gift as “a mark of honor for every employee of our hospital” and said the partnership “will allow us to forge ahead with the construction of our new medical tower, which will set a new standard for Israeli healthcare.” The deal was structured over months of strategic negotiations led by Halevy and Merin alongside Akiva Holzer, the hospital’s director of special projects, and Yana Kalika, president of The Koum Family Foundation.

The $200 million figure surpasses the previous record set in August 2025 by Anat and Shmuel Harlap, who donated $180 million to Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital outside Tel Aviv to fund the “Tower of Hope,” scheduled to open in early 2027. Beilinson is part of Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest health-maintenance organization, which has substantially greater access to state budget allocation than independent hospitals like Shaare Zedek. The back-to-back nine-figure gifts represent a pattern that Israeli healthcare executives and government budget officials are watching carefully. According to reporting by Globes, Ynetnews, and Ctech, private capital — most of it American-Jewish — is now funding hospital infrastructure expansions at a scale that the Israeli state is not financing on a comparable timeline. The trend highlights a widening structural gap between institutions capable of attracting transformational private philanthropy and those dependent primarily on state budget allocations.

The healthcare-economics implications are substantial. Shaare Zedek operates as a financially independent hospital not affiliated with any of Israel’s four health funds — Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, and Leumit — and consequently depends on philanthropic support more heavily than peer institutions to grow. The economics of attracting and retaining medical professionals in Jerusalem are also a meaningful factor in the project. Israel’s nationwide nursing shortage and the chronic shortfall of senior physicians in Jerusalem specifically — where housing costs are substantially higher than in peripheral cities and competing offers from Tel Aviv-area hospitals are common — have made on-campus staff housing one of the most important recruiting tools an Israeli hospital can offer. The new tower’s integrated staff housing component, funded through the Koum gift, is designed in part to address that recruiting problem and to support clinical staffing for a hospital that is about to triple its bed count.

For Israel’s healthcare system, the Koum donation is a marquee proof point that diaspora philanthropy can move on a scale and timeline that the state budget cannot match — particularly during a wartime year in which the Iran conflict has consumed substantial fiscal capacity. For the Koum Family Foundation, the gift consolidates a position as the largest single private donor to Israeli healthcare in the country’s history. And for Jerusalem, the new tower — when complete — will be the largest and most advanced single hospital facility in the city, set to anchor the medical district at the western edge of Israel’s capital for the next generation of patients.

— JBizNews Desk

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The Justice Department sent a letter to Yale School of Medicine on Thursday, alleging it was illegally discriminating against applicants who are not Black or Hispanic, following a similar missive sent last week to the University of California, Los Angeles medical school.

A 2023 Supreme Court ruling prohibited the use of affirmative action in admission decisions, but the Trump administration accused the medical schools of continuing discriminatory practices despite that decision, citing differences in average test scores and GPAs between students of different racial groups over the past three admissions cycles. 

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WASHINGTON — Over a recent breakfast, U.S. officials had a message for the German ambassador: pay more for pharmaceuticals.

The meeting, between U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, chief health department adviser Chris Klomp, and German Ambassador Jens Hanefeld, was part of a larger push from the Trump administration to get other countries to pay more for medications as the U.S. pays less, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

The U.S. officials discussed the possible use of tariffs under Section 301 — which grants the government authority to combat trade practices considered “unfair.” The move would be similar to the tactic of threatening new tariffs to get other countries to pay more for drugs. The ambassador agreed to review the matter with officials in Germany, but no deal was made, the person said. 

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Two weeks ago, one of the most important scientists of the 20th century died. Craig Venter was a legend in genomics — a self-styled maverick who made a career of challenging institutional science and its methods and assumptions.

His most famous challenge to the scientific status quo came in the late 1990s, when his private company Celera announced it would beat the publicly funded Human Genome Project in the race to generate the first sequence of the human genome. It was one of the top science stories of the 20th century.

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Alcohol kills more Americans than any other drug by a wide margin. But discussions about substance use epidemics in the U.S. are usually centered around drugs like fentanyl or meth. In fact, most people in the U.S. do not see alcohol is as much of a public health problem at all.

My STAT colleagues, reporters Isabella Cueto and Lev Facher, spent months examining this contradiction — how can such a dangerous substance be treated with such ambivalence? Earlier this week they launched a new STAT series “The Deadliest Drug” that aims to answer that question.

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At the ripe old age of 73, I take six drugs — four prescription and two over-the-counter pills — every day. I keep careful track of them.

But recently, when I received a refill, I noticed my blue pill was now yellow. I was startled, but this was not the first time my pills had morphed into different colors. A few months ago, my white and blue capsule had become white and purple, and before that, my pink tablet turned blue. 

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The economics of America’s booming weight-loss-drug market have been fundamentally rewritten after the Trump administration’s “Most Favored Nation” pharmaceutical pricing deals pushed the cost of blockbuster GLP-1 medications sharply lower for millions of Americans, including Medicare beneficiaries receiving obesity treatment for the first time.

Under the new framework now taking effect nationwide, eligible Medicare patients can access Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro for roughly $245 per month, with many beneficiaries paying co-pays closer to $50 monthly depending on plan structure and supplemental coverage.

The pricing reset marks one of the largest structural changes to U.S. pharmaceutical pricing in decades and dramatically expands access to a category of drugs that has rapidly become one of the most important stories in healthcare, consumer behavior and even the broader economy.

Before the agreements, many patients without comprehensive insurance coverage faced annual out-of-pocket costs exceeding $13,000 for GLP-1 medications.

The Trump administration’s Most Favored Nation agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, signed in late 2025, effectively forced a broad restructuring of pricing across obesity and diabetes medications while opening the door for Medicare obesity coverage tied to related health conditions.

The impact on consumers is immediate.

Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound, which previously carried a list price above $1,000 per month, is now available through direct-to-consumer and government-linked programs at dramatically reduced pricing depending on eligibility and dosage.

Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic now fall under similar pricing frameworks through Medicare and participating distribution platforms.

The administration also launched the new TrumpRx platform, designed to centralize lower-cost access to medications participating in the pricing framework.

Under the system, certain obesity drugs, diabetes therapies and chronic-disease medications now carry prices far closer to international benchmarks than historic U.S. list prices.

The structural Medicare change may prove even more important than the pricing itself.

For years, Medicare Part D rules effectively prohibited broad coverage of anti-obesity medications under restrictions dating back to the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act.

The administration’s legal interpretation now allows coverage when obesity is paired with recognized related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea or metabolic disorders.

That dramatically expands the eligible patient pool.

Medicare currently covers roughly 65 million Americans, with analysts estimating that between 15 million and 25 million beneficiaries may qualify for GLP-1 therapy under the revised framework.

State Medicaid programs are also beginning to adopt similar structures, with multiple states already approving expanded obesity-drug access.

The shift is creating winners and losers across the pharmaceutical industry.

Eli Lilly appears best positioned.

The company continues dominating the injectable obesity market through Zepbound and Mounjaro while simultaneously expanding into oral GLP-1 therapies with newly approved Foundayo.

Lilly executives have acknowledged that pricing pressure will reduce per-unit economics but argue that dramatically higher patient volume will offset much of the revenue impact.

Novo Nordisk faces a more complicated transition.

The Danish pharmaceutical giant still controls massive global scale through Wegovy and Ozempic but has warned investors that pricing resets and future patent expirations are likely to pressure growth over the next several years.

The effects extend well beyond pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves.

Retail pharmacy chains including CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance are positioned to benefit from increased prescription volumes, while employers and insurers could eventually see downstream healthcare savings tied to lower obesity-related complications.

The broader economic implications are increasingly difficult to ignore.

GLP-1 medications have already begun reshaping spending patterns across food, apparel, fitness, healthcare and consumer sectors as weight loss and metabolic improvements alter behavior for millions of users.

Analysts now estimate the broader GLP-1 category could eventually exceed $150 billion in annual global sales, making it one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in modern history.

Critics of the administration’s pricing structure, however, remain vocal.

Several Democratic senators — including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Merkley — have demanded additional details regarding implementation, pricing formulas and interactions with existing federal drug-pricing programs.

Questions also remain about the long-term durability of the framework and the legal challenges likely to emerge from portions of the pharmaceutical industry.

Still, for patients standing at the pharmacy counter today, the practical reality is already clear.

A category of medications once viewed as financially inaccessible for much of the middle class is rapidly becoming mainstream healthcare.

The GLP-1 market is no longer a niche obesity-treatment story confined to wealthy consumers or celebrity culture.

It is becoming one of the largest and most politically consequential healthcare shifts in modern American medicine.

JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. This article is original reporting by JBizNews Desk. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.

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Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood testing is likely to reduce the risk of death from prostate cancer, found a new review published on Thursday by an influential international science research organization — a shift in medical evidence that could encourage wider use. 

The Cochrane review’s first author, Juan Franco from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Germany, said at a press conference that they have “moderate certainty” that the screening test, which identifies high levels of PSA as a potential marker of prostate cancer, leads to a reduction in disease-specific deaths. The benefits are marginal: the review analyzed results from six trials involving 800,000 participants conducted in Europe and North America, and found about two fewer prostate cancer deaths for every 1,000 men screened. 

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.

The court’s order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.

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This week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD” is all about health politics.

We bring on FDA reporter Lizzy Lawrence to discuss Makary’s departure — why he is leaving, which of his policies will stick, and what we know about his acting replacement, Kyle Diamantas.

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MIT President Sally Kornbluth said Thursday that the school’s research enterprise has shrunk 10 percent from a year ago and warned of a persistent drop in graduate admissions as the university grapples with federal funding challenges and policy changes.

Kornbluth — who spoke in a video message — said that federal funding cuts, an increased taxes on large university endowments, and changes in immigration policies that have discouraged international students from applying have contributed to the drop in research funding and admitted graduate students.

“The fact is that we’re looking at a real drop in research being done by the people of MIT,” Kornbluth said. “Frankly, it’s a loss for the nation. When you shrink the pipeline of basic discovery research, you choke off the flow of future solutions, innovations and cures — and you shrink the supply of future scientists.”

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Shortly before his departure from FDA, Marty Makary opened up to Men’s Health about his guilty pleasure: organic yogurt-covered goji berries. Send news tips and vice confessions to John.Wilkerson@statnews.com or John_Wilkerson.07 on Signal.

Dr. Cassidy v. Sen. Cassidy

Everyone in Louisiana politics feels sorry for Bill Cassidy.

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As part of efforts to phase out the use of monkeys in research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intends to transfer more than 160 macaques to Born Free USA, a nonprofit that runs a large primate sanctuary in Texas.

The agency is trying to move quickly due to the “unusual and compelling urgency” of finding housing for the monkeys, according to a notice about the proposed contract that was posted on a procurement website run by the General Services Administration.

A timeline for the transfer was not specified but the agency is accepting responses until May 28.

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Rise and shine, everyone, another busy day is on the way. And it is getting off to a pleasant start here on the Pharmalot campus, where clear blue skies and comfy breezes are greeting us. Who could ask for anything more? Actually, we could — it is time to reheat the kettle for another cuppa stimulation. Our choice today is apple hibiscus. And here is a helpful tip — a teaspoon of honey enhances the flavors splendidly. Of course, you are invited to join us. For the full experience, we are now hawking replicas — take a look. Meanwhile, here are a few tidbits to help you along. As always, do keep in touch. We appreciate feedback, criticism, and tips. …

Biogen reported mixed results from a mid-stage clinical trial investigating a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease that targets the protein tau that, like the better-known amyloid, is toxic to neurons and is believed to play a role in the cognitive decline of patients with the disease, STAT says. In the Phase 2 study, the Biogen drug, called diranersen, reduced levels of tau in the spinal fluid and brains of patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s. Those tau reductions also correlated to a slowing of cognitive decline. Reducing tau in the brain has been accomplished by other drugmakers with antibody treatments, but tying those reductions to a meaningful slowing of cognitive decline has been challenging. Multiple efforts to date have proven unsuccessful. With diranersen, Biogen is trying a different approach. The drawback is the drug must be administered via a spinal injection.

Takeda Pharmaceutical plans to cut about 4,500 jobs in fiscal year 2026, as it ‌pushes ahead with a restructuring to centralize corporate functions ‌and reduce costs, Reuters notes. The company expects annual savings of more than $1.27 billion by fiscal 2028, but did not provide details about the timeline and which ‌roles will be affected. Takeda has been in the midst ⁠of a years-long overhaul following its $62 billion acquisition of Shire in 2019, which expanded its global footprint but added debt and ​complexity. The company expects higher selling, general and administrative, and R&D expenses linked to ‌upcoming product ⁠launches, including a narcolepsy treatment, a blood disorder drug, and a psoriasis medicine, but said much of the increase would be offset by the restructuring program.

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You’re reading the web edition of STAT’s Health Tech newsletter, our guide to how technology is transforming the life sciences. Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.

Good morning health tech readers!

When I worked in a physical newsroom instead of in my house, I was often mocked for muttering, speaking, and occasionally yelling at my computer screen. So I’m somewhat sympathetic to the growing mass of tech workers that are verbally dumping half-baked instructions into to Claude Code. Put on headphones and let people live.

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Biotech’s cell therapy boom keeps expanding beyond cancer: CREATE Medicines just raised $122 million to advance its in vivo CAR-T for autoimmune disease into the clinic.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is searching for a new FDA commissioner, setting up a politically fraught fight over the agency’s future direction.

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Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic’s appointment comes months after Oracle named another healthcare leader, former Quest Diagnostics CEO Stephen Rusckowski, to the board as the technology giant expands its reach in the sector.

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Good morning. STAT’s Helen Branswell was recently interviewed for Columbia Journalism Review about the challenges of reporting on the hantavirus outbreak. If you need a dose of empathy for journalists — or if you’re a reporter yourself, looking for guidance from the best — check it out. And if you want to subscribe to STAT+ afterward, you can do that here. 

The Trump admin’s wish list for its next FDA leader

The Trump administration is working to identify the next FDA commissioner after Marty Makary resigned on Tuesday. The dream candidate is someone who can rebuild trust with agency staff, focus on the agency’s food policy, and continue to drive drug-approval reforms, STAT’s Daniel Payne and Lizzy Lawrence report.

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Kyle Diamantas, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration — newly installed following Marty Makary’s resignation — is expected to be a drama-free, stabilizing caretaker at the top of the agency.

Leadership turnover is always going to cause some angst, but based on what I’m hearing, biotech and the investors who track the sector have little to fear from Diamantas. He is stepping into the new role after serving as the FDA’s top food regulator.

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Regenxbio said Thursday that its experimental gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy produced sufficiently high levels of a miniaturized muscle protein broken in the fatal neuromuscular disease, paving the way for a submission to the Food and Drug Administration. 

The company is seeking to create a Duchenne gene therapy that is more effective and safer than Sarepta Therapeutics’ Elevidys, which has been hampered by safety concerns, particularly following the deaths of two recipients from liver failure.

“I think our data checks every single box that you would want for accelerated approval,” Regenxbio CEO Curran Simpson told STAT. 

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CREATE Medicines has a new name, an expanded pipeline, and now fresh funding to propel the company’s first CAR-T candidates through human trials. 

Up until last year, CREATE was known as Myeloid Therapeutics. The startup was cofounded by noted writer and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee to develop better CAR-T therapies using a type of immune agent called myeloid cells, ideally to better attack solid tumors. The company rebranded last fall and, like many other oncology CAR-T companies, expanded into autoimmune disease research. 

Now, CREATE has raised another $122 million from Newpath Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners, and others, the biotech told STAT exclusively.

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Biogen reported mixed results Thursday from a mid-stage clinical trial investigating a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease that targets the protein tau that, like the better known amyloid, is toxic to neurons and is believed to play a role in the cognitive decline of patients with the disease. 

In the Phase 2 study, the Biogen drug, called diranersen, or BIIB080, reduced levels of tau in the spinal fluid and brains of patients with early stage Alzheimer’s. Those tau reductions also correlated to a slowing of cognitive decline, the company said.

Biogen investigated three escalating dosing regimens in its study, with the lowest dose showing the best results. For that reason, the study failed to achieve its primary efficacy goal, which was a dose response. 

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Recently, I saw one version of the AI-enabled future of medicine. It was compelling in its simplicity, thrilling in its potential as a force multiplier, and all wrong. The product misunderstood the needs of the patient, the role of the doctor, and the nuanced dance between them. The AI was technically adept, perhaps even marvelous. But it failed at an essential element of a physician’s job: the art of medicine.

What troubled me most was the possibility that patients might mistake simulated empathy for genuine human connection. For me, the art of medicine requires the ability to connect authentically with my patients. That connection is bidirectional, intentional, and therapeutic. With AI, we risk losing that connection. This loss would negatively impact subjective and objective outcomes. 

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All Jillian wanted was to regain control of her drinking. 

At 38, she knew alcohol had already cost her a marriage and begun to threaten her career. What had started as typical college-age shenanigans had morphed into regularly overindulging at professional happy hours, and eventually into an all-day urge to drink. Most days, a bottle of vodka journeyed from standing full in a cabinet to laying empty in a recycling bin. 

“I got to the point where I said: Holy shit, I can’t stop on my own,” Jillian said. 

Her boyfriend was at a loss. Her therapist’s harm-reduction tactics helped at times, but the relapses kept coming. And while her family doctor encouraged her attempts to cut back, he never prescribed medication that might help. In the end, Jillian took the only path she knew: She sought a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

But the mutual help group didn’t do the trick, either. She found the programming too God-centric and the messaging about achieving sudden, permanent abstinence unrealistic. At several points, men aggressively pursued her and other women there, offering rides home or seeking their phone numbers under the guise of mentorship. When she did find camaraderie, it was with other attendees who met up after meetings to drink at a nearby bar. 

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