Biotech & Longevity · Tuesday, 1 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

Two people died of measles in Pennsylvania. The US national count still says zero.

Biotech & Longevity 1 min 46 sources

The new head of the US disease agency ordered her staff to challenge a state's finding, breaking a rule that has stood for decades. The agency has no investigators at either bedside, so its review can only add the deaths or leave them out.

measles deaths in the US national count for 2026

the agency delayed its Friday update rather than add the two Pennsylvania reported [2]

2,777

measles cases recorded across the United States this year

more than the 2,289 in all of last year, and the worst year since 1991 [3][5]

424

confirmed cases in Pennsylvania, with 73 people admitted to hospital

not one of the people who fell ill was fully vaccinated [4]

97%

of people are protected from measles by the two-shot vaccine

US coverage has fallen below the 95% needed to stop outbreaks starting [4][3]

The lead story — what happened

Pennsylvania's health department reported two measles deaths on 25 August, the first in the United States this year. [3][6]
Both people were unvaccinated, lived in Lancaster County, and tested positive for the measles virus. [1][3]
The new head of the US disease agency, Erica Schwartz, has ordered officials to challenge the state's finding, the New York Times reported on 31 August. [1]
That breaks the agency's standing practice, which is to accept the data states send it. [1]
Its website said the week's outbreak update would not include the two deaths. [1]
The national measles death count for 2026 still reads zero. The agency delayed its Friday update to keep it there, and on Sunday the two deaths appeared on its measles page and were then replaced by an asterisk. [2]
Debra Houry, a former chief medical officer of the agency, called it highly unusual, and said it did not happen with three measles deaths in Texas and New Mexico last year. [2]
The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, wrote that the deaths may have been fabricated, and accused Pennsylvania's governor of manipulating the truth. [1][4]
A county coroner in Lancaster County, which is an elected political post, said one of the deaths was unrelated to measles. The cause he gave would be consistent with measles. [4]
One of the two was a newborn with a ruptured spleen. Nothing has been released about the second person. [1]
Reporting on 28 August put Pennsylvania at about 424 confirmed cases and 73 people in hospital. Nobody who fell ill was fully vaccinated. [4]
The United States has recorded 2,777 measles cases this year, more than the 2,289 in all of 2025, and its worst year since 1991. [3][5]
In November an international panel decides whether the United States has lost its measles-free status. Canada lost its last year. [5]

Who is involved

Erica Schwartz

the new head of the US disease agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed this month; she ordered staff to challenge the state's report [1]
Robert F Kennedy Jr

the US health secretary, who runs the department the agency sits inside; he wrote that the deaths may have been fabricated [1][4]
Pennsylvania's health department

the state body that investigated both deaths and reported them; it has released almost no detail about either person [1][4]
Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania's governor; he turned down an offer of federal staff and said federal rhetoric was harming communities [3]
Debra Houry

a former chief medical officer of the US disease agency; she says leaving the deaths out is highly unusual [2]

What is pushing on this

Doubt from the top High↑

the US health secretary wrote that the two deaths may have been fabricated [4]

What the state can show Steady→

both people tested positive, and almost no other detail has been released [1][4]

The outbreak itself Building↑

424 confirmed cases in the state and 73 people in hospital [4]

Protection in the population Easing↓

US vaccination has slipped under the 95% that stops measles spreading [3]

How it unfolded

25 Aug Pennsylvania reports two measles deaths, the first in the United States this year [3][6]
26 Aug the US health secretary writes that the deaths may have been fabricated [4]
27 Aug the disease agency says it is working out whether measles caused them [4]
28 Aug the agency delays its weekly outbreak update, leaving the 2026 death count at zero [2]
30 Aug its measles page is edited twice, the two deaths appearing and then being replaced by an asterisk [2]
31 Aug it is reported that the agency's director has ordered officials to challenge the state's report [1]

Where this points

The next weekly update is the test: either the two deaths appear in the national count, or the agency has to publish what its own review actually found. [1][2]

The rest of the day

37 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
Two drugmakers halt autoimmune cell-therapy trials

Novartis put holds on 24 August on trials of its cell therapy rap-cel in lupus, myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis, after three patients developed a rare and possibly life-threatening immune reaction. Bristol Myers Squibb has also paused enrolment in its own autoimmune trials of zola-cel. [7]

Why it matters — This is the class of treatment that recently put three of six people with severe rheumatoid arthritis into drug-free remission; what reboots an immune system can also overshoot it. [8]
03
A pill beats the standard MS tablet

Novartis said on 1 September that its once-daily pill remibrutinib cut relapse rates by more than teriflunomide, the tablet used now, in two phase 3 trials in relapsing multiple sclerosis. It released no figures. [9]

Why it matters — A claim of superiority with no numbers attached is a press release, not a result.
04
Three new drugs in three days

The US drug regulator approved Rasonque for pancreatic cancer on 26 August, Lisraya for the muscle and skin disease dermatomyositis on 27 August, and Mimrylo for the blood disorder polycythemia vera on 28 August. That is 36 never-before-approved drugs this year. [10][11][12]

Why it matters — Three first-of-their-kind approvals inside one week is unusual, and all three treat conditions with few or no existing options.
05
$35,000 a month for a rare disease drug

Lisraya, the newly approved dermatomyositis treatment, will list at $35,000 for a 30-day supply, its makers said on a Friday call. Pfizer discovered the drug and licensed it to Priovant, which chose rare diseases because there is less competition there. [13]

Why it matters — The price is set where nobody else is selling, which is the same reason the disease was chosen.
06
A US review lane scored on national interest

The pancreatic cancer drug was reviewed under a new pilot at the US drug regulator called the National Priority Voucher, which shortens reviews for products that support stated US national interests. A cross-specialty council discusses the application before the normal division decides. [11][14]

Why it matters — Speed through a regulator is now something a company can be granted for reasons that are not only medical.
07
Heart drug wins, and the shares fall

Full results for Cytokinetics' heart drug aficamten showed 53% of 517 patients improved on at least three of five measures, against 13% on a dummy. About one in ten had a dangerous drop in the heart's pumping strength, and there were 12 heart failure events. [15][16]

Why it matters — The company blames a rigid dosing rule that took the decision away from doctors, an explanation offered after the fact.
08
A rival blood-fat drug looks safer

Arrowhead released full results for plozasiran, which raised liver fat by about 1.5% against a dummy, compared with 2% to 4% in trials of Ionis's already-approved Tryngolza. The two drugs have never been tested against each other. [16]

Why it matters — A comparison across separate trials is not a comparison, but it is the one analysts are pricing.
09
Novartis inflammation drug clears phase 2

Pacibekitug, an antibody that blocks the immune signal interleukin-6, produced sustained falls in inflammation markers in a mid-stage trial presented in Munich on 29 August. Higher doses produced bigger falls. [17]

Why it matters — Markers are not heart attacks, and the trial that would settle it has not been announced.
10
Turkey investigates the biggest copycat maker

Turkey's competition authority opened an investigation into Teva, the world's largest maker of generic drugs. The regulator says Teva may have made it harder for rivals to enter the market, and made misleading claims about their safety. [18]

Why it matters — Teva paid a $503m fine in Europe two years ago over conduct it says is similar, and is appealing. [18]
11
A court asks what buying a patent means

A large US health insurer and Amgen, a big biotech company, are in court over Amgen's purchase of a pending patent application, and whether that let it hold on to a monopoly. The US competition regulator has weighed in on the insurer's side. [19]

Why it matters — If buying an unfinished patent counts as blocking rivals, a common industry deal becomes an antitrust question.
12
Updated COVID shots cleared for one variant

The US drug regulator approved reformulated COVID vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech, from Moderna, and from Novavax, all aimed at the XFG variant. All three carry the narrower clearance now given to newer COVID shots: everyone over 65, and younger people at higher risk. [20]

Why it matters — The shots are updated every year, but who is allowed to have them has narrowed.
13
Mpox reaches Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau reported its first mpox outbreak, part of a spread that has produced almost 190,000 laboratory-confirmed cases across 145 countries since 2022. The US disease agency said this month that mpox is on course to become permanently established in the United States. [21]

Why it matters — A disease that used to appear in small bursts in a few countries is settling in.
14
Bat genomes point at long life

Researchers built near-complete genomes and cell lines for eight closely related Myotis bats, a group whose lifespans vary enormously for their size. They found changes tied to long life and cancer resistance, and a split in how bats handle DNA viruses compared with RNA viruses. [22]

Why it matters — Bats carry viruses that would kill other mammals and live for decades; the genomes are where both traits have to show up.
15
A map of how forty organs age

A tool called PathStAR read 25,306 post-mortem tissue samples from 40 organs in 970 donors aged 21 to 70. Blood vessels age early, the uterus and vagina accelerate around menopause, and organs in the same body were found to decline together. [23]

Why it matters — Ageing is usually measured in molecules; this measures the shape of the tissue itself.
16
Dogs age by the same chemistry

The Dog Aging Project found that patterns of small molecules in dogs' blood predicted earlier or later death in almost the same way the equivalent patterns do in people. [24]

Why it matters — A dog's whole life fits inside a study, which a human life does not.
17
A protein that stands in for eating less

Yale researchers measured more than 7,000 proteins in 42 people who cut their calories by 11% to 14% for two years. One immune protein, C3, fell sharply, and blocking C3 directly reduced age-related inflammation in mice. [25]

Why it matters — Severe calorie restriction extends life in animals and also leaves them more prone to infection, so a substitute is the point.
18
Postwar sugar rationing, read 70 years on

People whose first thousand days fell inside Britain's postwar sugar rationing had lower rates of several cancers and showed slower biological ageing decades later. They were also still eating less sugar in their fifties. [26]

Why it matters — Rationing ended for everyone on one date, which makes it a natural experiment nobody could run on purpose.
19
Keto cut liver fat by two-thirds

In a trial of people with obesity, prediabetes and fatty liver, all three diet groups lost about 10% of their body weight, but the very-low-carbohydrate group cut liver fat by 67% against 45% for the others. About half no longer met the definition of prediabetes after four to five months. [27]

Why it matters — Same weight lost, different result, so the weight was not doing all the work.
20
Ten healthy diets barely overlap

Across two large European groups, hardly anyone in the top quarter of one healthy-diet score was in the top quarter of another. Each pattern left a different chemical mark on DNA, and the marks led back to the same biological pathways. [28]

Why it matters — The scores disagree about who eats well and then agree about what it does.
21
Brief night wakings track Alzheimer's risk

Among more than 500 healthy people, middle-aged adults who woke briefly more often during the night carried a higher genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease. The link did not appear in younger adults. [29]

Why it matters — A genetic risk score is not a diagnosis, and the study cannot say which came first.
22
Lithium enters an Alzheimer's trial

A lithium salt will be tested in people with early Alzheimer's for the first time next month, at Johns Hopkins University. The idea follows Harvard work showing the same salt reversed memory loss in mice, and that people who died of Alzheimer's had less lithium in their brains. [30]

Why it matters — Lithium has been used in medicine for a century, which makes it cheap and its side effects well mapped.
23
Support cells turned into neurons in mice

A cage of nanoparticles carrying antibodies converted astrocytes, the brain's support cells, into neurons in mice bred to have a version of Alzheimer's, and the mice then did better on thinking tests. [31]

Why it matters — Mice engineered to have the disease are not people who have it.
24
A human-only gene slows the brain's cleaners

Columbia researchers found that human microglia, the brain's immune cells, mature far more slowly than the same cells in other animals, and traced it to human-specific copies of a gene called SRGAP2. [32]

Why it matters — The same gene was already known to make human nerve connections form slowly and densely.
25
The lizard brain story falls apart

A Georgia Tech analysis found brain evolution is not new rational layers stacked on an ancient instinct core, a picture proposed in the 1950s. Evolution instead trades off two competing wiring styles, growing one and shrinking the other. [33]

Why it matters — The layered picture is still how most people describe their own decisions.
26
Prime editing scaled up to whole genes

A method called prime assembly swapped a stretch of DNA for a 2.9-kilobase replacement in up to 57.8% of human cells in a dish. It put a cancer-fighting receptor into human T cells in 28.1% of them, and reached 4.3% of liver cells in mice. [34]

Why it matters — Gene editing has mostly changed single letters; whole faulty genes need whole replacements.
27
An inhaled RNA reads past a stop sign

University of Toronto researchers restored the missing cystic fibrosis protein in lung cells, in mice, and in tissue grown from patients, using inhaled transfer RNAs that read through a premature stop signal in the gene. [35]

Why it matters — The same trick would apply to any disease caused by a stop signal landing in the wrong place.
28
Blood flukes engineered to make antibodies

Researchers edited the parasite Schistosoma mansoni to secrete an antibody fragment, and the change passed down two generations of worms. Blood from mice carrying the worms neutralised SARS-CoV-2 in a dish. [36]

Why it matters — A parasite that lives in a person for years is being tested as a factory that never needs another dose.
29
Nose antibodies beat blood for RSV

In a Gambian household study of 342 people tested weekly for a year, antibodies in the nose predicted protection from RSV better than antibodies in the blood, and the two barely tracked each other. [37]

Why it matters — Vaccines are usually judged on what is in the blood, because that is what is easy to sample.
30
A pill matches the standard colon regimen

In a 748-patient trial, the pill anlotinib with chemotherapy gave the same median time before the cancer worsened as the injected standard, bevacizumab: 11.0 months in both groups. [38]

Why it matters — Matching is the goal here, because the pill replaces an infusion.
31
Exercise plan helps the frailest most

A re-analysis of a 1,199-person trial in frail adults over 70 looked at an exercise and nutrition programme. It cut the risk of losing mobility or dying by about a fifth overall, and by about a third among those who also had a psychiatric condition. [39]

Why it matters — A re-analysis splitting a trial into subgroups finds effects that the trial was not designed to test.
32
Chatbots got a fifth of answers wrong

Twelve specialists rated answers from several chatbots to 20 patient questions about using viruses to treat drug-resistant infections. Ratings were generally favourable, but 20% of the answers contained wrong information. [40]

Why it matters — Favourable average ratings and one wrong answer in five can both be true of the same set of answers.
33
The first gene-edited hypoallergenic dogs

A New York start-up used CRISPR, the gene-editing tool, to make two beagles that appear unable to produce a protein that sets off allergies in some people. A gene-edited hypoallergenic cat announced two and a half years ago is still not on sale. [41]

Why it matters — Pets are where gene editing meets a paying customer with no regulator in between.
34
A new vape cleared for sale in the US

The US drug regulator authorised the JUUL2 device and its tobacco and menthol flavoured pods on 28 August, three products in all. [42]

Why it matters — The same agency approving first-of-their-kind cancer drugs also decides which nicotine products may be sold.
35
Weight-loss drug tied to lower medical bills

A study announced by Eli Lilly found that adults over 55 who stayed on its obesity drug Zepbound went to hospital and to emergency rooms less often, and cost less to treat over six months. [43]

Why it matters — The company that sells the drug is the one announcing the study that says it saves money.
36
Semaglutide's inflammation effect, pooled

Across nine trials covering 6,239 people without diabetes, injected semaglutide cut body weight by about 12% and the inflammation marker CRP by about 41%, compared with a dummy injection. [45]

Why it matters — Pooling nine trials gives a firmer number than any one of them, and hides how different their patients were.
37
A Zika vaccine that works through T cells

Two experimental Zika vaccines both protected mice, but one worked mainly through killer T cells rather than through the antibodies such vaccines are designed to produce. [46]

Why it matters — There is still no effective Zika vaccine, and this changes what a candidate should be measured on.
38
Flu season looks milder, so far

Flu is circulating at moderate levels in Australia and other Southern Hemisphere countries, and this year's shots appear well matched to the virus now spreading. [44]

Why it matters — The Southern Hemisphere's season is the only advance look the Northern Hemisphere gets.

02 Lesson why it matters

The review that could not be a check

A body that only collects numbers has never measured anything itself, so when it doubts one of them it can subtract it, but it cannot check it.

The twist

Checking a number takes a second measurement made independently of the first, and the bodies we trust most to check are usually the ones that only ever collect.

How it works

A state's doctors decide what killed someone
They send that finding up to the national agency
The agency has no investigators there and no body to examine
Its file is a copy of theirs, not a second look
So doubting the finding can only mean leaving the death out

Where you've seen this

Company accounts

much of an audit tests the firm's own ledger rather than counting the money again

Organic food labels

the certificate rests on the farm's paperwork, and nobody tests the soil

University admissions

a degree is confirmed against the transcript the applicant supplied

World disease tolls

global totals are added up from national reports that nobody gathers again

The catch

Measuring everything twice would cost far more than the errors it caught, so most systems run on trust on purpose. The useful move is knowing which numbers were only ever counted once, not doubling every count.

And the whole of it

Almost every number a person acts on was measured once by somebody they will never meet, and everyone above that person is passing it along. That includes this page: it is a stack of other people's first measurements, and we can tell you who made each one, but not that anyone made it twice.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

A national count of measles deaths is only the sum of what states report, so a federal review of one of them has nothing new to look at and can only add it or leave it out.

Why it works on us — Zero is a number people trust more than they should, because it looks like a measurement when it is often just an absence of entries.

Who gains

Robert F Kennedy Jr — A national count that stays at zero fits the figure he gave on television, that there have been three US measles deaths in ten years. Three were recorded last year alone. [2]
Anti-vaccine campaigners — The state has released almost no detail about either person, and one group says it is trying to reach the families directly. [4]
Priovant — It took a drug Pfizer discovered into a disease with almost no competition, won approval, and set the price at $35,000 a month. [13]
Companies whose work fits the US drug regulator's stated national priorities — The new voucher lane shortened the pancreatic cancer review, and eligibility turns on national interest rather than on the disease alone. [11][14]
Arrowhead — Its rival's liver fat numbers became the benchmark at a meeting where the two drugs were never actually compared. [16]

Who pays

The families of the two people who died — Their deaths are being argued over in public while campaigners try to find them, and the state has released nothing that would settle it. [4]
State health departments — The federal agency has broken with taking their findings as reported, so any state can now expect its own investigation to be contested. [1][2]
Unvaccinated people in Lancaster County — 424 confirmed cases and 73 people in hospital, in communities that are largely disconnected from routine health care. [4]
Patients waiting on autoimmune cell therapy — Trials in lupus, myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis stopped enrolling on 24 August while three safety cases are reviewed. [7]
People with dermatomyositis — The first drug approved for their disease lists at $35,000 for 30 days. [13]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

What actually killed the two people in Pennsylvania.

Both tested positive for measles, and the state has released almost nothing else. One was a newborn with a ruptured spleen, and an elected county coroner says one death was unrelated to the virus. [1][4]
02

What the US disease agency's review of those deaths consists of.

It has no investigators at either bedside. It has published no method and no finding, only a note that the deaths are excluded and, later, an asterisk. [1][2]
03

How much better the new multiple sclerosis pill is than the one it beat.

Novartis reported superiority on relapse rates in two phase 3 trials and released no relapse numbers at all. [9]
04

What caused the immune reactions that stopped the autoimmune cell-therapy trials.

Novartis found three cases of a rare inflammatory syndrome; Bristol Myers described transient and reversible events. Neither has published the underlying data. [7]
05

Whether the new blood-fat drug is really safer than the approved one.

The liver fat figures of about 1.5% and 2% to 4% come from separate trials run by rivals. The two drugs have never been compared directly. [16]
06

Why the heart drug caused early heart failure events.

The company blames a rigid dosing rule that removed doctors' judgement. That explanation was offered after the events and has not been tested. [15]
07

What anyone will actually pay for the new dermatomyositis drug.

The $35,000 monthly list price was given on a company call. What insurers or patients will pay was not. [13]
08

Whether the United States keeps its measles-free status.

An international panel decides in November, and this year's case count has already passed the whole of last year's. [3][5]

04 Hope carry this

Two doses of the measles vaccine stop 97 people in every 100 from catching it. Nobody who was fully vaccinated has fallen ill in Pennsylvania's outbreak.