US regulator approves the immune drug Tecentriq for one kind of stage 3 colon cancer, after a trial found it halved the risk of the cancer returning

The rest of the day

13 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   A monthly shot for schizophrenia approved

   Teva, an Israeli drugmaker, said on Friday that the FDA had approved Weltruza, a once-a-month injection for adults with schizophrenia. [4] Schizophrenia is a lasting illness that can bring hallucinations and confused thinking. Weltruza is a slow-release form of olanzapine, an older antipsychotic medicine. [4][5] It uses a release method from Medincell, a French biotech company, and is their second approved product after Uzedy in 2023. [4] Teva plans to start selling it in the US within weeks. [4]

   Why it matters — Analysts expect long-acting shots to help people who struggle to keep taking their medicine for an illness that lasts for years. [5] Medincell's shares rose 16.9% in Paris, and it may earn up to $112 million more from Teva, plus a share of sales. [4][5]

2. 03

   A new pill for herpes the old drugs miss

   The FDA approved Hovilpri, a pill also called pritelivir, for adults with weak immune systems. [6] It is for herpes sores that did not heal on acyclovir, valacyclovir or famciclovir, the usual drugs. [6] Herpes simplex is a common virus that causes painful blisters on the lips, nose, eyes or genitals, and it stays in the body for life. [6] In a trial of 101 such adults, all sores healed within 28 days in 63% of those on Hovilpri, against 34% on other drugs. [6]

   Hovilpri63%

   Other drugs34%

   Why it matters — People whose immune systems are weakened, for example by blood cancers, transplants or HIV, get herpes more often and more severely. [6] Until now their doctors could only switch between drugs the virus resisted, or that patients could not bear. [6]

3. 04

   Trust in science measured in 140 countries

   Wellcome, a British charity that funds research, published its Global Monitor survey of more than 140,000 adults in 140 countries. [7] It found that 52% of Americans trust science 'a lot', against 26% across the world. [7] Worldwide, the share who say science helps most people in their country fell from 42% in 2018 to 37% in 2025. [7] In the US it rose from 48% to 57%. [7] The survey was run as part of the Gallup World Poll. [7]

   United States52%

   Whole world26%

   Why it matters — STAT, a US health news site, found that the US gap between religious and non-religious people on whether science helps was 24 points, against 5 in other rich countries. [7] The gap is growing because graduates and non-religious Americans are warming to science faster, not because others are turning against it. [7]

4. 05

   WHO finds no plague case in Russia

   The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it still does not know what killed a 28-year-old worker at a plague research institute in Irkutsk, Siberia. [8] She died of pneumonia on 2 October, and about 200 people were quarantined. [8] Russia told the WHO that tests on her and her contacts were negative for the dangerous germs they checked for. [8] The WHO said no plague case has been registered, and it has found no sign that anything is spreading. [8]

   Why it matters — The WHO called the missing diagnosis the key uncertainty that remains. [8] Health officials watch closely for deadly pneumonia with no known cause, because the Covid pandemic began with a cluster of exactly that. [8]

5. 06

   Ebola reaches another part of Congo

   Ebola has reached Alimbongo, a health area in Congo's North Kivu province, which had four confirmed cases and two deaths by 6 October, the WHO said. [9] Cases have now been found in 64 health areas across seven provinces. [9] This outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo, a kind of Ebola with no approved vaccine or treatment. [9] By 6 October Congo had 8,728 confirmed cases and 4,205 confirmed deaths, and 2,269 people had recovered. [9]

   Why it matters — Doctors Without Borders, a medical charity, says a third of confirmed patients are treated in ordinary clinics, partly because the special centres lack beds. [9] That risks passing the virus to other patients and to staff, while teams are following 80.4% of known contacts against a target of 85%. [9]

6. 07

   New finger-prick tests for river blindness

   Researchers in Ghana tested two new quick blood tests for river blindness on 1,700 people in seven communities, in a study published on Sunday. [11] River blindness is caused by a worm, Onchocerca volvulus, and can take away sight. [11] Some of the communities had been given drugs against it for many years. [11] Both new tests agreed with the existing quick test more than 92% of the time. [11] Against a lab test on skin samples, they caught about 69% to 77% of the 26 infections found. [11]

   Why it matters — The tests met the WHO's standard for mapping where the worm still lives, but not for deciding when a country can stop handing out the drugs. [11] The work was funded through USAID, the US government's aid agency. [11]

7. 08

   Five brain patterns inside depression

   Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland recorded brain activity in 263 people with depression and 75 people without it. [12] They used MEG, a scanner that picks up the faint magnetic fields made when brain cells fire. [12] The people with depression fell into five groups. In some, brain regions were more tightly linked than normal, and in others less. [12] One group had more trauma symptoms, and another had more problems with drugs or alcohol. [12]

   Why it matters — Studying a mix of these groups may explain why earlier brain studies of depression disagreed with each other. [12] The researchers say the scans cannot yet be used to choose a patient's treatment. [12]

8. 09

   Loneliness and years of good health

   Researchers at Tulane University in the US followed 277,489 adults aged 40 to 69 who began without any of seven major illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and depression. [13] At age 50, men who were both lonely and isolated could expect about 5.8 fewer years free of mental illness. [13] For women it was about 3.7 years. [13] For physical illness the losses were 2.4 years for women and 1.7 for men. [13] The study shows a link, not proof of cause. [13]

   Men5.8 years

   Women3.7 years

   Why it matters — A healthier lifestyle reduced the loss linked to having few contacts, but not the loss linked to feeling lonely. [13] That suggests the two problems need different kinds of help. [13]

9. 10

   Pressing shin bones helped injured brains

   Researchers at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, pressed on the shin bones of mice with brain injuries for 2.5 minutes a day for five days. [14] The treated mice moved and remembered better than untreated mice one week and eight weeks later. [14] Bone cells that sense pressure released three substances into the blood, including BDNF, which helps nerve cells survive. [14] Pigs given a similar treatment lost fewer brain cells. [14]

   Why it matters — No approved drug restores lost brain function after a brain injury. [14] All the animals were male, and an outside scientist says the work must be repeated in females, because oestrogen changes how bone responds to pressure. [14]

10. 11

    A drain found at the back of the eye

    Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto in Canada found a drainage route at the back of the eye in mice. [15] They named it the POLO pathway. [15] Tiny vessels under the retina, the light-sensing layer of the eye, carried fluid to nearby lymph nodes within minutes. [15] For more than 100 years scientists had thought the eye had no drains like this. [15]

    Why it matters — Glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, two big causes of blindness, involve fluid and waste building up in the eye. [15] Nobody yet knows whether people have the same route, or whether it can be made to work harder. [15]

11. 12

    A seed-sized nerve stimulator

    Engineers at NYU Abu Dhabi and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi built a nerve stimulator the size of a small seed that is put in place through a needle. [16] It has no battery and no wires. [16] Power comes wirelessly from outside the body, and doctors can adjust its electrical pulses. [16] In early tests, reported in the journal Science Advances, it switched on nerves inside a living body. [16]

    Why it matters — Treating long-term pain by stimulating a nerve today often means surgery to place a device. [16] The new device has not yet been shown to ease pain in people. [16]

12. 13

    A common plastic and fatty livers

    Researchers at Texas A&M University in the US studied tiny bits of polyethylene, the most widely made plastic, in the laboratory. [17] It is used in food wrap, containers and the linings of drink cups. [17] Exposure raised signs of fatty liver disease, in which fat builds up inside liver cells. The signs were worse with a fatty, sugary diet. [17] The plastic switched on PPAR-alpha, a protein that controls how the liver handles fat. [17]

    Why it matters — About a quarter of people worldwide have fatty liver disease. [17] The researchers say more work is needed to know whether this happens at the amounts people actually take in. [17]

13. 14

    Olive oil before sugar, in mice

    Researchers led by Daisuke Yabe of Kyoto University in Japan gave mice olive oil 15 minutes before or after a dose of sugar. [18] When the oil came first, blood sugar rose less and the stomach emptied more slowly. [18] The oil-first mice also released more of several gut and pancreas hormones, including GLP-1, the hormone that weight-loss drugs like Ozempic copy. [18] The effect held in mice with type 2 diabetes. [18]

    Why it matters — Blocking either glucagon or GLP-1 alone did not stop the effect, but blocking both weakened it, so several signals work together. [18] Earlier studies in people found that eating fat or vegetables before carbohydrates helps, and these mouse results suggest why. [18]