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6 takeaways from STAT’s investigation into the U.S. alcohol epidemic

Alcohol is the culprit behind the United States' most enduring and overlooked drug crisis. Here are 6 takeaways from STAT's new investigative series, The Deadliest Drug.

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May 12 • 4:30 AM EDT • Health • statnews.com
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Why Swedish scientists gave salmon cocaine

A recent study caught our eye: salmon on cocaine. Or really, researchers giving salmon cocaine…for science. See, scientists know human drugs pollute aquatic environments – past studies have shown even anti-anxiety drugs can change how fish act. But illicit drugs are less studied. And Jack Brand, an aquatic ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, wanted to know how illicit drugs like cocaine might change fish behavior, like foraging and mating. To answer that question, Jack and his team gave salmon cocaine. Interested in more science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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May 12 • 3:00 AM EDT • Science • npr.org
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DeepAFM: A deep learning method to decode protein motion

Proteins change shape as they function, and these changes are essential for processes such as drug interactions and cellular activity. Researchers from the Tokyo University of Science developed an AI-based method called DeepAFM that is trained on millions of simulated images representing different protein states, accurately identifying transitions between closed and open states in a protein called SecA. This approach highlights the growing potential of AI to solve complex challenges in biology and medicine.

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May 11 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • eurekalert.org
What The Abortion Pill Case Could Mean For The Workforce And Healthcare

A federal appeals court said providers could no longer mail mifepristone anywhere in the country. SCOTUS temporarily restored access for mailing the drug until May 14th.

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May 11 • 4:58 PM EDT • Health • forbes.com
5 Key Facts on Adolescent Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders

Nineteen percent of adolescents experience moderate to severe anxiety and 2 million have a substance use disorder. This analysis covers the latest data on adolescent mental illness, suicide and drug overdose trends, and access to care.

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May 11 • 4:10 PM EDT • Health • kff.org
Supreme Court temporarily extends access to a widely used abortion pill

The Supreme Court is leaving women’s access to a widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Thursday, while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug, mifepristone, to take effect.

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May 11 • 4:02 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Medicare’s miss on Alzheimer’s drug spending

Far fewer seniors than expected are taking costly Alzheimer's drugs.

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May 11 • 2:03 PM EDT • Health • statnews.com
Jefferson County health officials report troubling rise in drug overdose deaths in 2026

A sharp rise in drug-related overdose deaths in Jefferson County has health officials urging residents to take precautions and seek help, as the county’s 2026 t

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May 11 • 11:58 AM EDT • Health • wtov9.com
DEA Announces New Marijuana Registration Forms For Manufacturing, Distribution And Testing Businesses

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has announced it will soon be rolling out new forms for additional types of state-licensed medical marijuana businesses beyond dispensaries that want to take advantage of federal protections in line with the Trump administration’s cannabis rescheduling process. Last month, DEA launched a registration form for medical marijuana dispensaries only, […]

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May 11 • 11:21 AM EDT • Business • marijuanamoment.net
Unintentional drug overdose fatalities in Philadelphia in 2024

Unintentional drug overdose fatalities in Philadelphia in 2024

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May 11 • 10:16 AM EDT • Health • phila.gov
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the new food pyramid

U.S. Health and Human Service (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hosts U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at the HHS Headquarters for the celebration of a major announcement. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary kicked off the event. Speakers included Kelly Loeffler, United States Administrator of the Small Business Administration, Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health of the United States, Ben Carson, National Advisor for Nutrition, Health, and Housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Jim O’Neill, United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Brian Christine, Assistant Secretary for Health and Head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and Kyle Diamantas, Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (USDA photo by Christophe Paul)

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May 11 • 9:39 AM EDT • Health • dvidshub.net
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Chicago’s Only Pinball Museum Moving From Pilsen To The Loop This Summer

The Flip: Chicago’s Playable Pinball Museum will open in Block 37 in a space that's quadruple its current size. “Chicago is the home of pinball,” founder William Pietri said.

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May 11 • 9:20 AM EDT • Technology • blockclubchicago.org
Greater weight loss from GLP-1 drugs lowers health complication risk

New research to be presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026, Istanbul, Turkey, 12-15 May) shows that, following treatment for obesity or diabetes or both using incretin-based drugs, losing more weight versus less weight, and losing a little weight versus gaining weight, both lead to relatively lower risk of obesity-related conditions.

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May 10 • 11:03 PM EDT • Health • news-medical.net
Woman turns COVID hobby into business, transforming broken car windows into jewelry

"I had a lot of people trying to offer me certain glass, and I had to learn a lot about how specific glass was made."

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May 10 • 7:00 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Daytime Performer of the Week: ‘Y&R’s’ Joshua Morrow is Riding High on Nick’s Drug Addiction Storyline

Morrow is flying to new heights in this story.

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May 10 • 5:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • cbs19news.com
FDA Policies: Rigorous Science or Roadblocks?

Readers debate how the Food and Drug Administration should handle treatments for rare diseases.

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May 10 • 10:13 AM EDT • Science • wsj.com
'The Hunt for Gollum': All About the Upcoming 'Lord of the Rings' Movie

'The Hunt for Gollum' is the upcoming 'Lord of the Rings' movie. Here's everything to know about 'The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum', including the timeline, plot, cast, release date and more news.

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May 10 • 9:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • people.com
How a pill approved 25 years ago transformed cancer treatment

When the Food and Drug Administration approved Gleevec to treat a form of leukemia in 2001, it ushered in a new era in cancer care.

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May 10 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • npr.org
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Johnson & Johnson CEO: America’s innovation advantage starts with health

From AI-accelerated drug discovery to a $55 billion domestic manufacturing push, the U.S. health innovation engine is just getting started.

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May 9 • 7:30 AM EDT • Health • fortune.com
Germany’s Healthcare Reforms Herald More Pain for Big Pharma

Donald Trump’s push to bring down drug prices in the US has rattled the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Now, they’re confronting a new menace as Germany seeks to plug a ballooning deficit in its public health-insurance funds.

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May 9 • 1:00 AM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com
U.S. Conducts Third Boat Strike in 5 Days, Killing 2 and Leaving a Survivor

Of the 57 attacks in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific against boats accused of drug trafficking, there have rarely been survivors.

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May 8 • 9:45 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
White House prepares to replace FDA leader Marty Makary amid agency turmoil

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has faced criticism over his leadership of the agency that oversees vaccine and drug approvals.

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May 8 • 3:11 PM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Health economist analyzes Trump’s deal for cheaper drugs
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May 8 • 2:18 PM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
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Exclusive: Kennedy's health officials explored US ban of some widely used antidepressants, sources say

U.S. health department ​officials last week explored whether they could ban certain drugs in a widely prescribed class of antidepressants as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ‌Jr. prepared to roll out a plan to reduce their use, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

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May 8 • 11:54 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com
Can blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss drugs also protect brain health?

UCSF experts share their research on medications’ potential to slow or reduce risk of dementia and to treat the triggers that drive addiction.

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May 7 • 4:37 PM EDT • Health • universityofcalifornia.edu
Pyxis Oncology Appoints Nelson Azoulay as Chief Business Officer

BOSTON, May 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pyxis Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYXS), a clinical-stage company developing next-generation therapeutics for difficult-to-treat cancers, today announced the appointment of Nelson Azoulay as Chief Business Officer. Mr. Azoulay joins Pyxis Oncology with more than 15 years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, and value-creating transactions across the biopharma industry, including deep antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) experience. In his role,

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May 7 • 4:05 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
More political interference at the FDA?

A political appointee gets in the way of a Sanofi drug's approval, and more from STAT's D.C. Diagnosis newsletter.

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May 7 • 10:54 AM EDT • Politics • statnews.com
FDA's New Playbook: Lots of Media Announcements but Not Much Rulemaking

WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of his first major announcements as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called a news conference to unveil a plan to “phase out” synthetic food dyes. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary opened the event by saying his agency was “removing all ...

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May 7 • 9:06 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com
Is the FDA Really Suppressing Science? Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, May 7. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Aaron MacLean says Trump is poised to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the Iran war. Joe Klein on the life of CNN founder Ted Turner. Jillian Lederman on why cruise ships are here to stay. And much more. But first: Is the FDA suppressing science? On Tuesday, The New York Times published a story with an alarming takeaway. “FDA Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe,” read the headline. It is the latest in a string of stories that all have the same message: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other agencies, are engaged in a cover-up—and silencing scientists trying to get the word out about the Covid vaccine. What all these stories suggest—some more subtly than others—is that the outsiders now running the public health establishment, officials such as Marty Makary at the FDA and Jay Bhattacharya at the National Institutes of Health, are on a revenge tour. That they are doing harm to the country to get back at the scientists and bureaucrats who ostracized them for deviating from the public-health consensus during the pandemic. It’s a seductive narrative. But is it true? That’s the question we address in our latest editorial. —The Editors Read [ Marty Makary's FDA Has All the Right Enemies ](https://www.thefp.com/p/marty-makary-vaccine-study-fda) [ Trump Blinks First ](https://www.thefp.com/p/iran-peace-deal-pakistan-trump-strait-of-hormuz) Aaron MacLean In return for no detectable concessions, President Trump this week gave up on forcing open the Strait of Hormuz. Now, the Trump administration looks desperate for a deal to end the war with Iran. It’s easy to understand the desire to end the war, but are they blowing the chance at victory? Aaron MacLean makes sense of the administration’s latest moves—and Iran’s response—in his column today. Read full story Aaron MacLean and Niall Ferguson: Live in New York City Join Aaron MacLean and Niall Ferguson on May 19 for a live recording of School of War at the iconic New York Historical. In a conversation as timely as it is wide-ranging, Aaron and Niall will explore the strategic stakes of the moment, including the Middle East, China, and the future of American leadership on the global stage. Get Tickets Now [ Ted Turner, the Optimist Who Built CNN ](https://www.thefp.com/p/ted-turner-cnn-tribute) Joe Klein The man who gave us CNN and the 24-hour news cycle, Ted Turner, died Wednesday at the age of 87. Today, political writer Joe Klein—who almost ghostwrote Turner’s autobiography—remembers his friend, the American media mogul who stood out for his idealism and lack of a filter—something that got Turner in trouble more than once. “His was not a traditional intelligence, but one of horizon: Ted saw things before other people did,” Joe writes. Read full story [ Nothing Can Sink the Cruise Ship ](https://www.thefp.com/p/cruise-ship-hantavirus) Jillian Lederman A viral outbreak on a cruise ship that left three passengers dead has left some people wondering: Are cruise ships on the way out? Not so fast, says Jillian Lederman, who has been on many a cruise herself. Read her piece on why 38 million people a year take a cruise—and aren’t about to stop. Read full story [ The Great Writers Who Were Terrible People ](https://www.thefp.com/p/the-great-writers-who-were-terrible) Shilo Brooks Throughout history, some of the greatest literary geniuses have also been immoral bigots. In the latest episode of Old School, Shilo Brooks is joined by Eli Lake for a conversation about those geniuses, from Voltaire to Norman Mailer and Roald Dahl—and why we should read their work despite their odious prejudices. Listen on MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS [ Inside the Digital Intifada ](https://www.thefp.com/p/digital-intifada-social-media-hamas-terror) Warren Kinsella Read full story [ This Week in American History: Trump’s Over-Arching Problem ](https://www.thefp.com/p/this-week-in-american-history-trumps-over-arching-problem) Jonathan Horn Read full story [ Humanity Is Still Evolving—and Fast ](https://www.thefp.com/p/humanity-is-still-evolvingand-fast) Razib Khan Read full story THE NEWS Thirteen D.C. Metropolitan Police officers have been placed on administrative leave and could face termination after an internal investigation found evidence that crime statistics were manipulated to make the city look safer. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee previously alleged that former D.C. police chief Pamela Smith pressured officers to skew data. Tennessee Republicans unveiled a redrawn U.S. House map yesterday that would split up Memphis’s black-majority Democratic district, the latest move in a nationwide push to redraw congressional boundaries ahead of the midterms. The effort follows a Supreme Court ruling last week on Louisiana’s districts, which Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said gave states the green light to redraw maps along partisan lines. Israel struck Beirut for the first time since a ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect last month, saying it targeted a commander of the militant group’s elite Radwan force in the city’s southern suburbs. The strikes risk destabilizing that truce at a delicate moment, as Iran and the U.S. report progress toward a deal to resolve their own standoff. The U.S. Air Force is aiming for a Fourth of July delivery of a Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar, hoping to add it to the Air Force One fleet in time for the U.S.’s 250th anniversary, Reuters reported. (For more on the controversy surrounding the aircraft, read Jed Rubenfeld’s piece “It’s a Terrible Idea, but Trump Probably Can Accept a Free Jet from Qatar.”) Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified privately before Congress that he has no memory of why he and his family dined on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in 2012, according to Reuters. The admission contradicts Lutnick’s earlier claim that he had cut ties with the convicted sex offender well before that visit. Weeks before a former JPMorgan investment banker filed a lawsuit packed with explosive allegations, the bank reportedly offered him $1 million to settle his sexual assault and harassment claims, according to The Wall Street Journal. The suit, filed by Chirayu Rana, alleges he was sexually assaulted by a female colleague, subjected to racial discrimination, and forced into a degrading dynamic at work. JPMorgan says the claims lack merit, and the female colleague’s lawyers call the accusations fabricated. A new report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research shows that, for the first time in roughly 20 years, church attendance is trending upward, with more people volunteering and clergy expressing renewed optimism. The study’s authors described the findings, based on a survey of more than 7,400 congregations, as showing signs of widespread recovery from low attendance numbers.

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May 7 • 6:20 AM EDT • Science • thefp.com
Texas-based teleradiologist wins court battle over California income taxes

The California Franchise Tax Board had charged that the rad and his sole proprietorship could be combined to constitute a "unitary business," subject to state taxation.

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May 7 • 4:49 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
'It wasn't stage-managed, it was just joy'

Arsenal should celebrate. If there's one learning to be taken from the days between Saturday's victory over Fulham and Tuesday's against Atletico Madrid - it's that vibes are paramount. For the majority of this season, Arsenal have been top of the table, soundtracked by endless talk of a quadruple or non-quadruple, unable to move for bottle memes.

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May 7 • 3:20 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Khloé Kardashian Says She Was Drugged at a Coachella Party: ‘I Was So Scared’

"I don't think anyone drugged me," she revealed on her podcast. "I just think I was the dumb one and didn't realize everyone was on drugs"

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May 7 • 3:04 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
U.S. to press allies to bolster counterterrorism efforts under new strategy

A new counterterrorism strategy, signed by President Trump on Tuesday, seeks to crack down on Islamist terror groups, drug cartels and violent domestic political groups.

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May 6 • 12:03 PM EDT • Politics • cbsnews.com
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Oregon has the worst racial health disparities in the West

American Indian and Alaska Native communities face the poorest health outcomes in the state.

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May 6 • 9:25 AM EDT • Health • axios.com
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Officials advance expanded tax district for Downtown Chesterfield development despite business opposition

A divided Chesterfield City Council needed the mayor to break a tie Monday night to approve an expansion of the Downtown Chesterfield Special Business District, despite objections from business owners now being pulled into it. The expansion, which would bring Drury Inn & Suites, Hyatt Place Hotel, Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill, Bishop’s Post, and […]

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May 6 • 6:40 AM EDT • Business • stlmag.com
Wisconsin lab tapped to research psychedelic drug as mental health treatment

A Wisconsin-based medical research lab is one of just three organizations nationwide the federal government has tapped to move forward on research into psychedelic medications.

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May 6 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • wpr.org
How science is taking tripping mainstream

President Trump recently signed an order to speed up the evaluation of psychedelics to treat the brain. That’s coming after decades of strict prohibition on psychedelic drug use dating back to President Nixon. So how did we go from that to a psychedelic renaissance? A look into a key institution in the world of psychedelic research may give us some clues. This episode, NPR’s brain correspondent Jon Hamilton shares insight from a recent trip. (No pun intended.) Want more psychedelic content? Catch our episode on ketamine therapy here, or learn why some scientists want to take the trip out of psychedelics here. Have other questions about psychedelics and the brain? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!

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May 6 • 3:00 AM EDT • Science • npr.org
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Northshore business owner arrested, accused of selling newly criminalized drug

A Covington business owner faces charges for allegedly selling kratom, a drug that became illegal in Louisiana less than a year ago.

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May 6 • 12:38 AM EDT • Business • wwltv.com
Michigan may force hospitals to disclose savings from drug cost program

The federal 340B program was meant to reduce drug costs for patients, but, according to some critics, instead it’s lining the budgets of big hospital systems. Others argue it’s keeping the little guys afloat.

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May 5 • 4:59 PM EDT • Health • bridgemi.com
Tonopah business owner arrested for alleged drug possession

A business owner in Tonopah has been arrested after police say he was found with drugs.

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May 5 • 4:37 PM EDT • Business • kolotv.com
RFK Jr. launches plan to curb ‘overprescribing’ of psychiatric drugs

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced federal efforts to limit overprescribing and support deprescribing of psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants.

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May 5 • 3:17 PM EDT • Health • cnn.com
White House says Trump's deals with pharmaceutical companies offer billions in savings

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House economists estimate that President Donald Trump’s deals with pharmaceutical companies to drop some of their U.S. prescription drug prices to what they charge in other countries could save $529 billion over the next 10 years. The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump’s pitch to voters going into November’s midterm elections for control of the House and Senate.

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May 5 • 2:15 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Researchers are giving salmon cocaine. Don't worry, it's for science

With cocaine and its metabolite, benzoylecgonine, being detected in waterways across the globe, Canadian researcher Erin McCallum and her team set out to understand the impact of these illicit drugs on fish in Sweden.

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May 5 • 2:00 PM EDT • Science • cbc.ca
Trump Pressures FDA Commissioner to Approve Flavored Vapes

President Trump upbraided Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary for not moving quickly enough to approve flavored vapes and nicotine products.

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May 5 • 12:31 PM EDT • Politics • wsj.com
The Cost of AI Is Going Up | AI & Business for May 5

Plus, AI’s drug-discovery challenge, the capital-spending craze and Meta’s borrowing

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May 5 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • wsj.com
Supreme Court abortion case could force Trump to take a public stance on mifepristone

The return of abortion to the Supreme Court is testing President Donald Trump’s strategy of avoiding the issue as the anti-abortion advocates grow increasingly frustrated that his administration hasn’t done more to crack down on access to mifepristone, the drug approved to terminate pregnancies.

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May 5 • 11:21 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
The dark side of weight loss drugs: Ozempic's surprising hidden cost

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are often celebrated as game-changing solutions—but new research reveals a surprising social twist. People who lose weight using these medications may actually face more judgment than those who lose weight through diet and exercise—or even those who don’t lose weight at all. The stigma seems rooted in a perception that these drugs are an “easy way out,” creating a double bind where individuals are judged both for their weight and for how they choose to manage it.

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May 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
The scientist designing a tailored attack on glioblastoma

At UCLA, Dr. David Nathanson develops drugs that target the unique biology of glioblastoma, offering new hope for patients with this aggressive cancer.

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May 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • uclahealth.org
Former IDF commander Wajdi Sarhan launches first Druze political party in decades

'Brotherhood Alliance' aims for Knesset seats and kingmaker role as Druze frustration with major parties grows; no clarity yet on alignment with coalition or opposition blocs

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May 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • timesofisrael.com
Oklahoma AG urges agency to let states regulate sports prediction markets

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is pressing federal regulators to make clear that states — not the federal government — have authority over sports-re

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May 4 • 1:28 PM EDT • Sports • okcfox.com
Supreme Court temporarily restores ability to receive abortion drug mifepristone by mail

The Supreme Court temporarily restored telehealth and mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone on Monday, responding to an emergency appeal that warned of potential chaos for patients who had appointments to access the drug.

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May 4 • 11:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Big Tech Targets Drug Discovery with Wave of Life Science Platforms

AWS, OpenAI, and Anthropic have all unveiled specialized AI workflows that promise to accelerate scientific discovery

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May 4 • 10:24 AM EDT • Science • genengnews.com
What Doctors Want You to Know About Cannabis and Health

The government recently loosened medical marijuana rules. Experts separate fact from fiction about the drug’s safety and benefits.

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May 4 • 5:01 AM EDT • Health • nytimes.com
How Republicans came to embrace psychedelic drugs

After decades of backing a “war on drugs,” the GOP has warmed to psychedelics for mental health treatment as high-profile backers and veterans tout the drugs.

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May 4 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Helene frayed the safety net for people who use drugs. This community wove it back together.

Harm reduction groups and health care workers helped avert the worst. But what about the next emergency?

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May 4 • 4:40 AM EDT • Health • grist.org
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Global Health & WASH: May 2026 Funding Opportunities (14 new opportunities!)

The May update for Global Health & WASH brings new calls that cluster around three distinct shifts: LMIC research leadership moving from funder encouragement into a hard eligibility constraint, pharmaceutical and corporate-linked funders running structurally independent education and use-inspired research portfolios at substantial scale, and AI adoption shifting decisively from speculative tool to operational capability across health and WASH systems alike. In LMIC Research Leadership as Eligibility, Not Encouragement, Wellcome anchors the dominant signal of the month with three separate major calls that all require or strongly center LMIC leadership in their basic eligibility architecture. Wellcome’s ESIC Hubs (£1.5-£1.9M per hub over 3-5 years) explicitly requires an LMIC-based lead applicant, treating Global South leadership as a design constraint rather than a participation goal. Wellcome’s Infectious Disease Clinical Trial Development Award funds transdisciplinary teams whose lead must be a mid-career or established researcher based at an organization in Africa, South Asia, or Southeast Asia. Wellcome’s larger Infectious Disease Clinical Trial Award (£1M-£8M for optimizing licensed interventions) requires the administering organization to be in eligible LMIC regions and at least 50% of applicants based there. Around Wellcome, the same pattern shows up at smaller scale and across funders: CHINNOVA channels $1M into West and Central African research institutions for climate-health work; IBRO’s Neuroscience Training Grants explicitly tier ceilings by region of residence with Africa receiving the highest amount ($5,000); IHME’s GBD Emerging Researcher Award reserves at least one of its two annual awards for an LMIC researcher; Sidaction’s HIV Cure call funds research teams across France, the Netherlands, and eligible African countries with a minimum two-country collaboration requirement. Taken together, these calls signal a meaningful shift in how research equity is being operationalized — not as encouragement language at the bottom of a call, but as a structural feature of who can lead, where the work must be administered, and what proportion of the team must be regionally rooted. In Pharma-Funded Independent Medical Education and Use-Inspired Research, the lineup this month is unusually deep. Pfizer alone runs four parallel calls under independent education and quality improvement frameworks: a Migraine and Women’s Health RFP (200K x 2-year, $500K pool), Migraine IME ($200K, $1M pool), JAK Inhibitor evidence-based education ($100K), and Maternal Vaccination HCP Education in Saudi Arabia ($75K), plus a separate Pediatric Pneumococcal Surveillance research call in Saudi Arabia ($400K per project). Novo Nordisk Foundation runs four parallel calls of its own at substantial scale: Infectious Diseases Catalyst Grants (DKK 60M pool, up to DKK 7M collaborative), Non-Diabetic Endocrinology Collaborative Grants (DKK 53M pool, DKK 5-10M per project), Pioneer Innovator Grant Health (DKK 1.1M), and Distinguished Innovator Grant Health (DKK 6.8M). LEO Foundation deploys DKK 2-4M per project for dermatology research excellence. Pfizer’s framing across calls deliberately separates the funding from product promotion, emphasizing measurable practice-relevant change and structural distance between scientific outputs and commercial activity. Novo Nordisk’s “use-inspired” hard filter pushes researchers toward a credible translation pathway from mechanism to deployable tool. The pattern: industry-aligned funders are running structurally independent portfolios at meaningful $ that fund implementation evidence, not promotion. In AI as Operational Capability, Not Speculation, several calls this month explicitly treat AI adoption as a near-term operational question with real evidence and governance requirements, rather than a speculative trend to be watched. Wellcome’s ESIC Hubs frames AI as “the accelerator” for evidence synthesis, asking hubs to translate technical innovation into adoption-ready workflows that can match real-world policy timelines. UNICEF Venture Fund’s new Climate Tech for Children’s Health call funds for-profit startups deploying AI, machine learning, and blockchain in low-resource environments, with a strict requirement that solutions must already have a working prototype with promising pilot results. The Water Research Foundation has launched two simultaneous AI calls treating reproducibility, cybersecurity guardrails, and human-in-the-loop deployments as core design constraints rather than nice-to-haves: one on GenAI and Agentic AI in water utilities ($200K), one on alternatives to water shutoffs that explicitly screens for implementation economics evidence. Nordic Innovation’s quantum technology call (NOK 4.5M) extends the same logic into life science and healthcare, demanding consortium-stage projects mature enough to test with real users. TEF-Health offers €300K in subsidized testing infrastructure for European healthcare AI and robotics SMEs. The pattern: funders are converting AI pilots into playbooks, requiring transfer evidence and risk controls before AI can move from experimentation to sector-wide operational practice. For LMIC-based researchers in infectious disease or evidence synthesis, the three Wellcome calls together represent the deepest concentration of LMIC-led research capital in recent memory — pair the Infectious Disease Clinical Trial Development Award (£200K, deadline May 19) as a strategic pipeline feeder into the larger Infectious Disease Clinical Trial Award (£1-£8M, deadline June 2), since the development award functions explicitly as a track into the larger trial scheme. For Nordic researchers, the four Novo Nordisk Foundation calls plus LEO Foundation and Nordic Innovation Quantum represent ~$30M in regional research capital this cycle, all with deadlines clustered in May-August. For WASH practitioners, the three Water Research Foundation calls together (each up to $200K) are a cluster worth reading across — one on AI deployment, one on shutoff alternatives, one rewarding applied innovation — and the strongest applicants will articulate how their work bridges utility operations to policy-relevant evidence. For US-based clinical researchers and educators, the four Pfizer calls plus the APF Portfolio’s 80+ programs form an unusually accessible recurring pipeline; APF’s prohibition on indirect costs is a meaningful structural feature for early-career applicants whose institutions might otherwise absorb significant overhead. Snapshot of New Opportunities Total Estimated Funding Pool: $100 Million+ USD The grants are organized into three categories: Open Calls: Current grant and opportunities with a deadline. Grants are listed by closing date. 39 open opportunities- 14 new! Rolling Applications: current grant and opportunities with rolling applications (but it’s still best to submit as early as possible). 14 rolling opportunities- 1 new opportunity! Long term planning: Grants that have closed their current rounds, but are expected to open new windows. 4 long term opportunities! A quick tip for returning readers: if you want to jump straight to the newest additions, use CTRL F to search for “New!” and navigate quickly to the latest funding opportunities This post is for paid subscribers. This helps support the time and effort it takes to curate and organize these opportunities. Subscribe To keep this accessible to everyone who needs it, we’re happy to offer pay what you can rates. You can find more details here. Open Calls: Migraine Competitive Grant Program: Migraine and Women’s Health (Quality Improvement and/or Research RFP), Pfizer.*Closing soon!* Pfizer, in collaboration with the American Headache Society, is seeking independent quality improvement and research projects that close persistent gaps in migraine care for women across the United States. The funding logic centers on measurable, practice-relevant change: proposals should generate actionable evidence, tools, or system improvements that can be shared and used widely, not just within a single site. Priority areas span menstrual migraine and screening in women’s health settings, the role of hormonal fluctuations across the lifespan, sex-specific risk factors, comorbidities and quality-of-life burden, and disparities in outcomes by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The call is structured as a two-step competitive process with an initial Letter of Intent, with the strongest concepts expected to translate scientific insight into implementable improvements in diagnosis, management, and equity. Geographies: United States. Who can apply: U.S.-based organizations (not individuals), including professional schools, healthcare institutions, professional organizations, and other entities focused on healthcare improvement. Funding amount: Up to USD $200,000 total over 2 years; total pool USD $500,000. Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; Focus areas: migraine, women’s health, quality improvement, clinical research, menstrual migraine, health disparities. Deadline: LOI: May 5, 2026; Full proposal (by invitation): August 28, 2026. Learn more and apply here. This RFP rewards “shareable impact”: the most competitive submissions will pair rigorous methods with a clear plan for system uptake and dissemination beyond the originating institution. ReSSARC: Strengthening the Health Sector and Food Security in the Central African Republic (AID 013381/01/0) Call for Proposals, Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). *Closing soon!* AICS is seeking a limited set of high-capacity humanitarian partners to deliver an integrated package that stabilizes essential health services while reducing acute malnutrition and strengthening food security resilience in priority areas of the Central African Republic. The funder’s logic is explicitly nexus-based: proposals should meet urgent, life-saving needs while reinforcing local systems, coordination mechanisms, and community-level capacity so results persist beyond the emergency window. AICS emphasizes inclusion and protection outcomes, expecting gender-sensitive design and explicit measures for groups facing compounded vulnerability, including women, children under five, internally displaced people, and people with disabilities. The call also signals a localization pathway, encouraging stronger collaboration with national NGOs and balanced partnerships, alongside clear coordination with existing cluster and humanitarian actors to minimize duplication and improve coverage. Geographies: Central African Republic (Bangui, Ombella-Mpoko, Ouham, Ouham-Pende, Lim-Pende, Lobaye). Who can apply: Non-profit organizations registered with AICS, plus eligible non-profits without an office in Italy that have a pre-existing collaboration agreement with an AICS-listed organization. Funding amount: Total pool EUR €1,800,000; max EUR €800,000 (single applicant) or EUR €1,000,000 (ATS). Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; Focus areas: malnutrition prevention and treatment, maternal and child health, community health services, food security and resilience, localization partnerships Deadline: May 5, 2026. Learn more and apply here. This call is structured to reward partners who can link frontline service delivery to system durability and localization, not just short-term coverage gains. Contracts for Innovation in drug and alcohol addiction healthcare, Innovate UK. *Closing soon!* Innovate UK, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences Addiction Healthcare Goals program, is procuring R&D to accelerate innovations that can improve treatment outcomes, strengthen recovery, and reduce harm and deaths linked to drug and alcohol addiction. The competition is positioned as a market-facing readiness push: selected projects are expected to advance solutions toward later-stage validation, generate evidence of user acceptability and UK market fit, and map credible routes through regulatory and certification requirements. Innovate UK signals a preference for innovations that can be field-tested in relevant UK settings and progressed to TRL 6 or 7, with practical plans for commercialization after contract completion. This structure favors applicants that can execute most work in-house, co-develop with service providers and people with lived experience, and translate technical progress into deployable tools for addiction healthcare delivery. Geographies: United Kingdom. Who can apply: Single organizations of any size (including EU, EEA, or international) leading delivery, with most work and key deliverables carried out in the UK; subcontractors for specialist skills only. Funding amount: GBP £200,000–1.5 million per project (inclusive of VAT); Total pool: GBP £20 million (across two strands). Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; Focus areas: Mental Health, Health Systems Strengthening, Research & Development, Technology Access. Deadline: May 6, 2026 (11:00am). Learn more and apply here. This call uses procurement to pull near-market addiction innovations toward operational proof and adoption pathways in UK services.

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May 4 • 3:59 AM EDT • Health • impactfunding.substack.com
Trophies or entertainment? Jose Mourinho conundrum facing Newcastle as Chris Waddle explains winning versus ‘boring’ balancing act

Jose Mourinho rumours refuse to go away at Newcastle, as questions are asked of Eddie Howe’s future, and Chris Waddle has told GOAL why any club considering a move for the ‘Special One’ must mull over the “win trophies or entertain” conundrum. Mourinho boasts several major honours on his glittering CV, but the ex-Chelsea and Real Madrid boss has faced accusations of being “boring” at times.

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May 4 • 3:59 AM EDT • Entertainment • ca.sports.yahoo.com
Weight loss drug Ozempic linked to lower depression and anxiety risk

GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide—best known for treating diabetes and driving weight loss under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy—may also deliver a surprising mental health boost. In a massive study tracking nearly 100,000 people over more than a decade, researchers found that these medications were linked to significantly fewer psychiatric hospital visits and sick days.

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May 3 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Alzheimer’s drugs may not work and could raise brain risks

Drugs designed to clear amyloid beta from the brain—once seen as a promising path to slowing Alzheimer’s—may not actually help patients in any meaningful way, according to a major review of over 20,000 participants. Even more concerning, they may increase the risk of brain swelling and bleeding, sometimes without obvious symptoms.

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May 3 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Republicans see high-risk plans as the future of health insurance

More than 40 million Americans are already opting to take on the cost of sick visits, drugs and surgeries to get lower premiums and tax savings.

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May 3 • 4:00 PM EDT • Health • politico.com
Fight over online access to abortion pill reaches Supreme Court in emergency appeal

The makers of the abortion pill mifepristone filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court on Saturday urging the justices to pause a lower-court ruling that temporarily blocked Americans from accessing the drug through the mail.

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May 2 • 1:30 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Scientists discover new enzyme that could supercharge weight-loss drugs

Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered an enzyme called Pap B that will chemically change and update drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy making them stronger and last longer.

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May 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • nypost.com
Spirit Airlines shuts down after White House rescue deal falls through

The airline said early Saturday it had “no choice” but to wind down operations immediately, dashing hopes of a last-minute financial lifeline.

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May 2 • 2:55 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
First malaria drug for babies is approved in ‘major public health milestone’

WHO prequalification of Coartem Baby means newborns can be safely treated rather than using medication for older children

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May 2 • 2:00 AM EDT • Health • theguardian.com
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Appeals court blocks FDA rule that allows women to obtain abortion drugs by mail

A federal appeals court temporarily reinstated a nationwide requirement that abortion pills be obtained in person, undermining access to the method of abortion that has only grown more widespread since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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May 1 • 5:30 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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Surgery still outperforms GLP-1 drugs in terms of heart health

Both treatment options are effective, but metabolic and bariatric surgery was linked to more significant cardiovascular risk reductions than GLP-1 medications.

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May 1 • 5:25 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com
Science news: Return of the river-herring run, Musk vs. Altman and new pancreatic cancer drugs

Under the Radar breaks down the latest science and technology headlines, including communities fighting back against data centers, overheated sharks and more

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May 1 • 4:43 PM EDT • Science • wgbh.org
FDA authorizes early access for experimental pancreatic cancer pill

The FDA said the action recognizes the dire need for a drug to improve survival for pancreatic cancer patients, who face the worst survival odds in oncology.

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May 1 • 3:41 PM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
James Druckman elected to the National Academy of Sciences

The University of Rochester professor is a renowned expert in political polarization and American democracy.

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May 1 • 12:24 PM EDT • Science • rochester.edu
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USDA issues health alert for frozen pizza sold nationwide at Aldi stores due Salmonella concerns

A health alert has been issued by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a frozen pizza brand sold nationwide at Aldi stores because of possible Salmonella contamination.

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May 1 • 10:37 AM EDT • Health • fox29.com
USDA issues health alert for frozen pizza sold nationwide at Aldi stores due Salmonella concerns

A health alert has been issued by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a frozen pizza brand sold nationwide at Aldi stores because of possible Salmonella contamination.

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May 1 • 10:37 AM EDT • Health • fox13news.com
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Media Recap: Behavioral Health and Drug Manufacturer Pressures

Adam Carlson, senior vice president of Advocacy, MHA, joined J.J. Hodshire, president and chief executive officer, Hillsdale Hospital, for a press conference April 17 to discuss how proposed cuts to Medicaid will further destabilize hospitals already experiencing financial strain.

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May 1 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • mha.org
Big Pharma throws support behind Ashley Moody in US Senate race

A number of pharmaceutical companies had their drugs removed from a list slated for price reduction negotiations with Medicare officials, thanks to legislation that Moody supported.

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May 1 • 7:30 AM EDT • Politics • tampabay.com
An incredible NBA blowout, plus LIV’s cash burn

The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! I hope you have your hat ready for tomorrow. Coming up: 😳 A historic Knicks rout 😰 Edmonton’s conundrum 💸 LIV’s cash burn We had a flight of 3-2 series matchups in both the NBA and NHL last night. I must start with an NBA clincher, though, due to a simple staggering fact: The Knicks advanced to the second round last night after beating the Hawks, in Atlanta, by 51 points. Not a typo! This was a 50-point game in the...

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May 1 • 6:28 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com
Health clinics exempt from drug discount rule change

A major overhaul to a federal drug discount program Indiana officials allege is being misused to generate hospital profits will exempt dozens of clinics serving low-income Hoosiers.

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May 1 • 5:30 AM EDT • Health • indianacapitalchronicle.com
Are all our politicians on drugs? No. Yet it is fair to say some may occasionally attend work refreshed

Gor blimey it smells like a brewery

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May 1 • 2:18 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
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PwC will drop cover for weight-loss drugs from employee health plans

Big Four accountancy balks at high cost of medication it says has become ‘cultural phenomenon’

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May 1 • 12:00 AM EDT • Health • ft.com
New treatment cuts bad cholesterol by nearly 50% without statins

A new breakthrough could change how high cholesterol is treated, offering a powerful alternative to traditional drugs. Researchers have developed tiny DNA-based molecules that shut down PCSK9—a key protein that keeps “bad” LDL cholesterol circulating in the blood. By blocking this protein, cells can absorb more cholesterol instead of letting it build up in arteries, dramatically lowering levels linked to heart disease.

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Apr 30 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Britney Spears charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs

Britney Spears was charged in California on Thursday with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, authorities said.

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Apr 30 • 5:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • cnn.com
Britney Spears charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs

Spears was charged in California Thursday

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Apr 30 • 4:42 PM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumlocalnews.com
Throwing 85 mph, Brandon Woodruff leaves start in second inning

Brandon Woodruff's velocity was alarmingly low, leading to the Brewers taking him out early on April 30

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Apr 30 • 2:37 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Druski tapped to host BET Awards, becoming youngest emcee in show’s 25-year history

Druski will host the 2026 BET Awards, becoming the youngest emcee in the show’s history.

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Apr 30 • 12:31 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
UChicago students propose solutions to city's sports stadium conundrum

The annual Harris Policy Innovation Challenge, launched in 2023, pushes students to find solutions to some of Chicago’s most pressing public policy issues.

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Apr 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • chicago.suntimes.com
Cardinal Health lifts annual profit forecast on strong demand for specialty drugs

Drug distributor Cardinal Health on Thursday raised its 2026 profit forecast range, betting on ​strong demand for costly specialty medicines and branded ‌drugs at its pharmaceuticals unit.

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Apr 30 • 7:15 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com
CEO of ECU Health urges House Ways and Means Committee to abandon "one size fits all" healthcare solutions

The leader of eastern North Carolina’s largest health system was in Washington this week, telling federal lawmakers that rural America is being left behind by current healthcare policies.

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Apr 30 • 6:22 AM EDT • Health • wunc.org
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Reid Hoffman Thinks Doctors Should Ask AI for a Second Opinion

The LinkedIn cofounder now has an AI drug discovery startup—and thinks not asking chatbots for medical advice is “bordering on committing malpractice.”

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Apr 30 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • wired.com
Protect patient access to life-saving drugs

By Leslie Herod Since its inception, Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) created fear among patients around effects to life-saving medicines and the negative ramifications price controls have on affordability. Five years on, those fears persist. Patients and advocates continue to push for protections for those facing the very likely scenario drugs whose price is […]

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Apr 30 • 2:30 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
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Viewpoint: A career in science is possible, and worth it

Starting a career in science is exciting, but also demanding, with researchers often faced with intense competition, long working hours and high levels of stress. A pioneer in the field of mass spectrometry, Carol Robinson has been there. She speaks with Science|Business on the importance of creating a supportive environment, particularly for women.Robinson did not wake up one day thinking that she would become a scientist. It was only late in school that she developed an interest in chemistry. “The more you work at something, the more you think, actually, this is fascinating. So, I went much further and deeper than I ever needed to pass the exam. And then I loved it,” she says. “I thought, I’m going to give it my all. I’m going to enjoy it while I’m here. But I didn’t think this would be my career for 50 odd years.”She left school at 16 to become a lab technician with the drug company Pfizer, which is where she first worked with mass spectrometry. Fascinated, she was encouraged to take a part-time degree and then a PhD. She went on to do pioneering work in native mass spectrometry, a technique that is used to study protein structures in their natural state, paving the way for breakthroughs in drug discovery. She also broke new ground by becoming the first female professor of chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and then the first female professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford, her current home.She now wants to show young researchers that a career in science is worth it. “Sometimes, I believe the culture isn’t very encouraging, and that’s something I have worked on,” Robinson says.In 2021, she launched the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford, whose acronym gives a sense of what she hopes it will achieve. “Maybe it is corny,” she says. “It’s just a reminder that I would like it if we could all be kind to each other and supportive, especially for early-career researchers of either gender, because there’s quite a big attrition rate in science, and maybe it just doesn’t feel like a very friendly place to work.”And yet, a career in science comes with a lot of flexibility. “There are few careers where you have that amount of freedom, to go to conferences, to the library. Just because you didn’t see me didn’t mean I wasn’t working,” she says. “And I’m excited to come in every day. So, I don’t want people to think it’s a terrible place.”Gender equality is also important when it comes to the quality of science as a career. “The more women we have, the better it becomes,” Robinson adds.Imposter syndromeAccording to EU data, women outnumber men in university education but account for just about a third of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem). And while the number of women working as scientists and engineers in the 27-member bloc is on the rise, their representation remains below that of men, at 41%. This discrepancy is even more pronounced in top-tier functions across these fields, where women fill just 20% of positions.Having supervised many young scientists, Robinson sees that women continue to have a greater propensity than men to doubt their abilities, a feeling she once shared. “When I was doing my PhD at the University at Cambridge, I really felt like an imposter,” she says. “I don’t think I ever felt I deserved to be there or owned it and was proud. I just thought I was lucky.” Later on, she adds, “I was always that person who said, I can’t apply yet because my CV is not strong enough.”She has now made it her job to encourage women to break with this imposter syndrome. For example, rather than calling for volunteers to give a lecture in the groups that she mentors or teaches, which nearly always results in men stepping forward, she goes straight to the women, “because I know they won’t push themselves forward.”But the gender gap in science is not just down to imposter syndrome. The “obvious” reason, Robinson says, and the reason that is on everybody’s mind when discussing workplace gender equality, is the balance between work and raising a family. Her own path was to choose between the two, taking an eight-year break after completing a postdoctoral training fellowship to bring up three children. And she continues to advise women not to work part-time while they raise a family. “You’ll just get half the pay and continue to work full-time because you are not able to fit everything in,” she says. “You should be able to have a family and come back to have the career that you want.”The solution is for men to also take career breaks. “That kind of evens it up, so that it’s not such a big thing for women,” Robinson says. “I always encourage men in my groups to do that. I think it’s important to take your share of the duties.”Support produces resultsAccording to the Women in Stem Network, a UK advocacy group, countries with strong childcare systems and equal pay policies retain more women in technical careers. In Europe, these are primarily found in the Nordic region and parts of central Europe.At the EU level, the European Commission asks all Horizon Europe applicant organisations to have a gender action plan in place. Since this criterion was introduced in 2021, the share of women leading consortia has increased to 31%, against 23% in Horizon 2020. Their overall participation, however, has risen just 1%, to 38%. After trying to weaken the requirement for gender action plans in 2025, the Commission now intends to adopt a plan for supporting women in research and innovation.Related articlesCommission scraps plan to water down gender requirements in HorizonHow gender balance can swing who wins Horizon Europe fundingRobinson herself has benefited from three Advanced Grants from the European Research Council. “I was extremely honoured and privileged to get those, because they really allowed me to fuel my passion,” she says. “Without that, it would have been a much harder slog.”Beyond applying gender rules, she says that more work is needed on translational enterprise, where women are, once again, largely underrepresented. The European Patent Office found that only 13.8% of applications were filed by women in 2022. “We have so many more women doing amazing science; why do they feel it’s not a thing to have a company?” she asks.She founded her own spin-out company, OMass Technologies, in 2016, and remains chair of its scientific advisory board now that it trades as OMass Therapeutics. As for research, Robinson is now studying how changes in the brain may be linked to depression, using port-mortem tissue. “We’re hoping to publish soon,” she says. “We had to consult with a lot of people who knew a lot more about the brain than we did. So, we’ve learnt a lot, and that’s always a lot of fun to learn a new thing. That’s what keeps you going.”

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Apr 29 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
‘The energy behind these drugs has moved from the beatniks to biohackers’

Opinion, comment and editorials of the day

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Apr 29 • 1:05 PM EDT • Politics • theweek.com
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They want their teams to win. The Liberty and Nets owners are funding scientific breakthroughs on human health that only billionaire philanthropy can achieve

Clara Wu Tsai's $220 million investment in athlete research has already helped lead to a drug designed to preserve muscle strength as we get older.

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Apr 29 • 12:56 PM EDT • Health • fortune.com
Ibogaine Hype Is Outpacing the Science

The hype surrounding the psychedelic drug ibogaine reached a fever pitch earlier this month, when President Donald Trump talked up its potential at a White House event promoting increased access to psychedelics. Ibogaine, which comes from the root of a West African shrub, has long been used for ceremonial and spiritual purposes. Now, for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration will allow a clinical trial of the drug.

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Apr 29 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • bloomberg.com
Report: iPhone Memory Costs Set to Quadruple by 2027

Memory could account for as much as 45 percent of an iPhone's component costs by 2027, up from around 10 percent today, according to a JPMorgan analysis cited by the Financial Times ($). Apple buys memory for roughly 250 million iPhones a year and has historically been one of the largest customers in the category. But Apple has reportedly now gone from a position where it could set terms to one where it now has to compete with rivals for supply.

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Apr 29 • 6:14 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
This ‘longevity drug’ may weaken gains from exercise

Researchers anticipated rapamycin would enhance the effects of working out, while also initiating health improvements of its own, but the results surprised them.

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Apr 29 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Australia becomes the 30th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem

The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Australia for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem, marking a significant milestone in the health of indigenous peoples and in global efforts to combat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, no longer represents a public health problem in the country.Australia is among a growing number of countries that have successfully eliminated trachoma, contributing to global progress towards the targets set out in the WHO road map for NTDs 2021–2030.Trachoma is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and spreads through close contact with infected individuals, contaminated surfaces, and flies that carry eye and nose discharge. Repeated infections can lead to scarring of the eyelids, turning eyelashes inward, and ultimately causing blindness if untreated.“WHO congratulates Australia on this important achievement,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This success reflects sustained commitment, strong partnerships, and a focus on reaching populations most affected by health inequities. It brings us closer to a world free from the suffering caused by trachoma.”Australia’s journey to eliminationAustralia’s achievement reflects decades of targeted public health action, particularly in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, where trachoma persisted despite its earlier disappearance from the rest of the country.National efforts intensified with the establishment of the National Trachoma Management Programme in 2006, which implemented the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy: surgery for trichiasis, antibiotics to treat infection, promotion of facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement. Regular screening of all communities classified as at-risk of trachoma by teams of qualified health workers formed an important part of the Programme. Interventions were delivered through coordinated partnerships between federal and state governments, Aboriginal community-controlled health services, and local communities.Over time, sustained screening, treatment, and prevention activities, including improvements in housing, water, sanitation and hygiene, led to a steady decline in trachoma prevalence. Australia’s approach included adaptations to reflect its context, such as targeted treatment based on community-level data rather than mass drug administration, and strong integration with environmental health programmes.“Elimination of trachoma is a win for the eye health of communities across Australia, particularly those whose lives have been impacted by a disease that is entirely preventable,” said Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Ageing, Australia. “This major milestone is thanks to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, community commitment and sustained investment over many decades.“The lessons from this work will inform how we approach other preventable health conditions in remote and regional Australia. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and local health workers have been central to this success, delivering culturally safe care and community-led solutions.”“This recognition from the World Health Organization reflects decades of work led by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, alongside local health workers in remote First Nations communities,” said Malarndirri McCarthy, Minister for Indigenous Australians. “Their work has been critical to eliminating trachoma as a public health problem in Australia.”Advancing global efforts against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)Trachoma is one of 21 diseases and disease groups that are regarded by WHO as NTDs. Together, NTDs affect more than 1 billion people worldwide, primarily in underserved populations with limited access to essential services such as clean water, sanitation, and health care.Australia’s elimination of trachoma as a public health problem highlights the importance of sustained political commitment and cross-sectoral collaboration in addressing the underlying determinants of health. It also underscores the feasibility of eliminating trachoma even in geographically challenging settings.In addition to trachoma, Australia has several endemic NTDs, including Buruli ulcer, leprosy and scabies. Validation of elimination of trachoma as a public health problem marks the first time that WHO has confirmed the elimination of an NTD in Australia, which becomes the 63rd country globally and 16th in the Western Pacific Region to have eliminated at least one NTD.“Tackling neglected tropical diseases in the Western Pacific Region has long been a challenge for countries across the socioeconomic spectrum, given the complexities in reaching the most vulnerable communities, including in remote areas,” said Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. “As a doctor from Tonga, I’ve experienced these challenges for myself. But I also know that with strategic commitment underpinned by optimal resources and partnerships in health, success is possible as other countries in our region have also demonstrated. I commend Australia on eliminating trachoma as a public health problem and urge all involved to remain vigilant to ensure this status is maintained.”WHO continues to support countries working to eliminate trachoma and other NTDs, ensuring that progress reaches those most in need and that gains are sustained through strong surveillance, appropriately integrated into national health systems, and mainstreamed within the wider health sector and beyond.Editor’s notesNeglected tropical diseases and trachoma elimination effortsNeglected tropical diseases are associated with devastating health, social and economic consequences. Their burden is mainly felt among impoverished communities in tropical areas.Public health targets for the control, elimination and eradication of these conditions were set in the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030 (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240010352).In 1996, WHO launched the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET2020), creating a network of governments, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions dedicated to the fight against trachoma. WHO continues to support endemic countries to accelerate progress towards the global target of eliminating trachoma as a public health problem worldwide; 2030 is the new target date.Elimination of trachoma as a public health problem is defined as: (i) a prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) “unknown to the health system” of < 0.2% in ≥15-year-olds; and (ii) a prevalence of trachomatous inflammation—follicular (TF) in children aged 1–9 years of < 5%, in each formerly endemic district, plus (iii) the existence of a system to identify and manage incident cases of TT.Other countries validated by WHO as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem are: Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Togo, Vanuatu and Viet Nam.

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Apr 28 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int
18 silly finalists from the Comedy Wildlife People’s Choice Awards

And your prestigious winner is...*drumroll please*...a bird with grass on its face.

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Apr 28 • 7:01 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Health Canada approves first generic version of Novo Nordisk's Ozempic

Health Canada ​has approved ‌the first ​generic ​version of Danish ⁠drugmaker ​Novo ​Nordisk's blockbuster diabetes drug ​Ozempic ​made by Indian ‌drugmaker ⁠Dr Reddy's Laboratories , ​its ​website ⁠showed on ​Tuesday.

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Apr 28 • 5:06 PM EDT • Health • reuters.com
Waldrum warns “one-size-fits-all” health policy could harm rural patients and providers

ECU Health CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum testified before a congressional committee Tuesday, urging federal lawmakers to take targeted action to address rising health

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Apr 28 • 4:49 PM EDT • Health • wcti12.com
Could At-Home Brain Stimulation Reduce Psychiatry’s Reliance on S.S.R.I.s?

A headset recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration uses a weak electric current to shock the brain. Some researchers hope it could challenge the current pill-centric paradigm.

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Apr 28 • 4:47 PM EDT • Health • nytimes.com
ECU Health CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum testifies before U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on rural health care access, affordability

Dr. Michael Waldrum, CEO of ECU Health, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on rural health care access and affordability.

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Apr 28 • 4:18 PM EDT • Health • ecuhealth.org
Trump administration reverses on paying for fentanyl detection strips

The Trump administration is no longer allowing federal funds to be used for purchasing or distributing test strips that can determine if street drugs ha…

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Apr 28 • 3:33 PM EDT • Health • thehill.com