The Food and Drug Administration may be on track to approve the first therapy based on CRISPR gene-editing technology after vetting from an expert panel on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Editing genes directly in a patient's body could be life-changing for people with debilitating hereditary disorders like sickle cell disease, which the exa-cel therapy under discussion targets.
With its outsized power to grab headlines, upend entire industries and dominate the public conversation, Ozempic has become the Taylor Swift of the stock market.
Driving the news: Krispy Kreme shares fell this week over worries that Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and other drugs that are being used for weight loss will shrink demand for donuts, Bloomberg reported.
The U.S. infant mortality rate rose 3%, with 20,538 deaths recorded in 2022, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday.
The big picture: The CDC report found there were 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022, compared to 5.44 per 1,000 live births in 2021 — marking the first year-over-year increase since 2001 to 2002 after a decades-long overall decline.
Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, is reeling from labor shortages, executive turnover, fierce competition, debt issues, retail theft and now a worker walkout.
Why it matters: The company's struggles — its stock is down nearly 44% this year — reflect the mounting challenges facing the drugstore industry.
A new first-of-its-kind federal campaign targeting widespread burnout in the health care workforce aims to make it easier for providers to get mental health care without fear it could jeopardize their careers.
Why it matters: The new plan from a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes amid heightened scrutiny of the routine practice of asking workers in high-stress professions about their mental health.
Two out of three physicians are concerned about AI driving diagnosis and treatment decisions, seeing it as a tool better suited for scheduling or other administrative tasks, according to a new Medscape survey.
The big picture: Many clinicians worry current iterations of AI could make flawed recommendations and drive up their legal liability. And like professionals in many other fields, they're also concerned about job security.
Hospitals place an unnecessary coronary stent in a Medicare beneficiary every seven minutes, costing taxpayers $800 million annually, according to a new analysis of claims data.
Why it matters: Overuse of stents comes with hefty costs for patients and the federal government, and it can sometimes pose serious health risks.
