Pig kidneys stored like glass at -150C, one for over a year, are rewarmed and work again, scientists report

The rest of the day

25 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Ebola reaches an eighth province of Congo

   Two Ebola cases have been found in North Ubangi, a province of Congo on its border with the Central African Republic, two health officials told Reuters on Thursday. [2] Congo's government had not yet announced it. [2] The outbreak, declared on 15 May, has caused more than 9,000 cases and 4,441 deaths. [2] Ituri, the worst-hit province, alone has 6,734 cases and 3,177 deaths. [4] It is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has no approved vaccine or treatment. [2]

   Why it matters — The WHO says about a third of new cases are found only after the person has died outside a clinic, so they were never isolated. [3] North Ubangi lies on the border with the Central African Republic, so the virus now sits at another country's edge. [2]

2. 03

   Ebola kills most children at one Congo centre

   Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the medical charity, says children are being hit hard by Congo's Ebola outbreak. [29] At its treatment centre in Butembo, in North Kivu province, 24 of 30 children died between June and September, most of them under five. [29] In North Kivu, children under five make up 24% of confirmed cases. [29] MSF thinks many caught the virus inside clinics where they were already being treated for other illnesses. [29]

   24 of 30

   children who died at MSF's Butembo centre, June to September

   Why it matters — Children are usually left out of vaccine and drug trials until adults have been tested, MSF says, so they wait longest for new tools. [29] Doctors also lack guidance on safe doses of experimental medicines for children. [29]

3. 04

   US plan would let pharmacies make untested peptides

   A US government website showed on Thursday that the US health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had sent a peptides 'interim access policy' to the US president's budget office for review. [7] Peptides are short chains of protein building blocks, injected by some people to build muscle or look younger; most evidence on them is from animals. [7] Two people familiar with the plan say pharmacies would be told they will not be targeted for making some, including BPC-157. [7] The FDA had put BPC-157 on its list of substances too risky for pharmacies to make. [7]

   Why it matters — The FDA names contamination, allergic reactions and tumour growth among the possible risks. [7] Hims & Hers and Noom, two online health companies, say they will sell peptides if the US government eases access. [7]

4. 05

   US regulator warns of bursting heart valve tool

   The FDA, the US drug and medical device regulator, warned on Thursday of a possibly high-risk problem with some Edwards Lifesciences delivery systems. [12] The tools place a new mitral heart valve through a thin tube in a blood vessel, instead of open-heart surgery. [12] Edwards received three reports of the tool's balloon bursting while being inflated, linked to one death and one serious injury. [12] The company has asked hospitals to stop using affected devices and send them back. [12]

   Why it matters — A burst balloon can block blood vessels or trap the device, which may force surgery on patients usually judged too frail for it. [12] The valve system, SAPIEN M3, was approved in the US only in December 2025. [12]

5. 06

   $700 million of Ebola money cannot be traced

   Africa CDC, the African Union's public health agency, says it cannot trace more than $700 million meant for Congo's Ebola response. [6] Donors say they paid $962 million to the groups running the response. [6] A check with Congo's health authorities could follow only slightly more than $200 million to the work on the ground. [6] Fewer than 30% of those groups came to account for the money, its head, Jean Kaseya, said on 14 October. [6]

   • Traced to the response$200m · 21%
   • Not traced$762m · 79%

   Why it matters — The money that cannot be found is more than three times the money that can, in an outbreak that is still spreading. [6] Congo has fought many epidemics, and worries about tracking aid money there are not new. [6]

6. 07

   Europe's worst West Nile season on record

   Europe has had its worst West Nile virus season on record, the ECDC, the EU's disease agency, said on Thursday. [13] EU countries reported 1,715 human cases caught locally and 130 deaths, as of 7 October. [13] The virus passes from birds to people through mosquito bites. [13] Belgium recorded 15 cases, its first ever caught inside the country, and the Netherlands 59. [13] Italy had the most, with 748. [13]

   Italy748 cases

   Greece445 cases

   France144 cases

   Netherlands59 cases

   Belgium15 cases

   Why it matters — The ECDC expects the virus to keep moving north in the coming years, and there is no vaccine for people. [13] It says cases are rising but severe illness is not. [13]

7. 08

   First trial of a vaccine for Congo's Ebola strain

   Scientists in Masaka, a city in southern Uganda, have started a small first trial of a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. [5] The vaccine was developed at the University of Oxford, and the trial aims to recruit 110 volunteers, each followed for 12 months. [5] A phase 1 trial checks whether a vaccine is safe and whether the body makes an immune response. [5] Congo will start a larger trial this month of Ervebo, a vaccine made for a different Ebola strain. [5]

   Why it matters — No vaccine exists yet for the strain driving Congo's outbreak, so this is an early step toward one. [5] Moderna, a US company, is working on a separate mRNA vaccine. [5]

8. 09

   GSK may cut 1,217 jobs in Belgium

   GSK, the British drugmaker, may cut up to 1,217 jobs in Belgium, across research, manufacturing and support staff. [8] Belgium holds three main sites of GSK's vaccine business, and the company employs about 8,500 people there. [8] The cuts are part of a plan, announced in July, to save 1.9 billion pounds a year by 2029. [8] Fierce Biotech, a trade outlet, says one reason is spare capacity in GSK's Belgian vaccine supply chain. [8]

   Why it matters — GSK says the savings will go to its most advanced new medicines and vaccines. [8] Belgium is the second country hit, after cuts to support staff in Poland last month. [8]

9. 10

   Vanda's social anxiety pill fails its final test

   A final-stage trial of Vanda Pharmaceuticals' pill for social anxiety disorder missed its main goal. [10] In 546 adults, people took one dose of the drug or a dummy pill, then gave a stressful talk to a panel that offered no encouragement. [10] Women on the drug felt no less distress than women on the dummy pill. [10] Vanda judged women only because a smaller earlier trial found a benefit in them but not in everyone. [10] The company has paused the drug. [10]

   Why it matters — Vistagen, another company, failed two final-stage social anxiety trials, in December and June. [10] Fierce Biotech, a trade outlet, calls Vanda's result another blow to efforts to treat the condition. [10]

10. 11

    Osivax flu vaccine misses its goal

    Osivax, a French biotech, said on 15 October that its flu vaccine failed a mid-stage trial in 2,850 healthy adults in Europe. [11] The vaccine, OVX836, protected 24% of people against flu, far below the 50% the trial needed. [11] It aims at a protein inside the flu virus that changes little from year to year. [11] Today's flu vaccines aim at proteins on the outside, which change, so they must be remade each season. [11]

    Protection the vaccine gave24%

    Protection the trial needed50%

    Why it matters — Osivax will now test its vaccine mixed with GC Biopharma's ordinary seasonal flu shot, approved in South Korea. [11] It hopes the mix will widen the protection a yearly flu jab gives. [11]

11. 12

    South Africa's drug firms ask for arrests over fake jabs

    Drug industry leaders in South Africa called on Wednesday for seizures, arrests and prosecutions over weight-loss products sold without approval. [26] They singled out products sold as retatrutide, an experimental Eli Lilly drug that is available only inside its trials. [26] An official at SAHPRA, the country's medicines regulator, said the rules exist but enforcing them is hard. [26] Its criminal cases depend on prosecutors and other agencies outside the regulator. [26]

    Why it matters — Border officials say some medicines arrive declared as cosmetics, and they are looking at training dogs to sniff them out. [26] A Novo Nordisk manager said seeing sellers in the open can make buyers think the products are legal. [26]

12. 13

    4 in 10 US high school students binge eat

    About 40% of US high school students said they had binge eaten in the past month, in a large survey by the CDC, the US public health agency. [18] It is the first time the survey, which asks teenagers about risky behaviour, has asked about binge eating. [18] It defined it as eating an unusually large amount quickly while feeling unable to stop. [18] Of nearly 7,000 students, 17% said they had done it in the last three days. [18]

    4 of 10

    US high school students who binge ate in the past month

    Why it matters — Binge eating was linked to checking social media at least every hour, poor mental health and suicidal thoughts. [18] Questions on eating had been dropped from the survey in 2015 to make room for questions on vaping. [18]

13. 14

    A same-day test finds hidden infections in sick children

    Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children's hospital in London, used a same-day test on samples from 122 critically ill children. [25] The test reads all the genetic material in a sample, so doctors do not have to guess in advance which germ to look for. [25] It found about nine in ten bacteria and viruses, and all fungi. [25] In a quarter of cases the results changed a child's treatment, such as starting, stopping or switching an antibiotic. [25]

    Why it matters — It also found 50 germs that routine tests missed, and is being rolled out to about 30 intensive care units across the UK. [25] Stopping antibiotics that will not work helps slow germs becoming resistant to them. [25]

14. 15

    One brain shows what clearing amyloid may do

    Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania examined the brain of a man who took aducanumab, an Alzheimer's drug, in a trial. [23] The drug clears amyloid, a sticky protein that clumps between brain cells in Alzheimer's. [23] It had cleared amyloid from the ridges of his brain's surface but not from the grooves between them. [23] The cleared ridges had little tau, a second harmful protein, while the grooves had much more tau and more damage. [23] The study is in JAMA. [23]

    Why it matters — It is rare evidence from a human brain that removing amyloid may hold back tau. [23] But it is one man, so it cannot prove that the drug is why the two areas differ. [23]

15. 16

    AstraZeneca pays an AI firm to find drug targets

    AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish drugmaker, will pay insitro, an AI drug discovery company, $40 million up front to find new targets for medicines. [9] It could pay up to $1.46 billion more if the work passes set steps. [9] insitro's computers search human and cell data for the biology that causes a disease. [9] It will look at a fatty liver disease called MASH and at diseases of the heart muscle. [9]

    Why it matters — Gilead, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly have all signed earlier deals with insitro. [9] Most of the money arrives only if the work succeeds, so the up-front payment is small next to the headline figure. [9]

16. 17

    Merck and Moderna choose where their cancer vaccine goes next

    Merck and Moderna are preparing to ask for approval of their personal mRNA cancer vaccine, used together with Merck's drug Keytruda. [19] In August they said it delayed melanoma, a skin cancer, coming back after surgery, in a large final-stage trial. [19] At the STAT Summit in Boston on Thursday, Moderna's president and Merck's research chief said they have focused on cancers where Keytruda already works well. [19] Small tests in pancreatic and stomach cancer are under way. [19]

    Why it matters — Each vaccine is built from up to 34 changed proteins in one patient's tumour, chosen by a computer program. [19] Moderna says data from several thousand trial patients could help improve that program. [19]

17. 18

    US prosecutors offer a deal to firms that report fraud

    The US Justice Department is making it easier for health companies to report their own fraud, an official said at the STAT Summit on Thursday. [20] Companies will now report to one office at the department instead of a separate process at the US health department. [20] Firms that report misconduct can get benefits such as a cap on what they must pay. [20] Prosecutors will also use data and AI to look for false billing. [20]

    Why it matters — Jacob Foster, who oversees the health fraud unit, said fraud steals from Medicare, the US health plan for older people, whose trust fund could run out. [20]

18. 19

    OrbiMed raises $3 billion, a third for Asia

    OrbiMed, a large health investment firm, has raised $3 billion for new funds in the US, Europe and Asia. [14] Its Asia fund raised over $1 billion, up from $751 million for the last one. [14] Fierce Biotech says interest in Asian biotech is rising because China has become a major source of new drugs for Western companies. [14] TCGX, another investor, raised $600 million for Asia earlier this month. [14]

    Why it matters — OrbiMed's managing partner, Carl Gordon, named China's rise as a biotech powerhouse as one reason to invest now. [14] Its fund for the US and Europe raised over $1.9 billion. [14]

19. 20

    OMass raises $310 million in Oxford

    OMass Therapeutics, a drug start-up in Oxford, England, has raised $310 million. [15] It says that is the second-biggest raise by a European biotech this year. [15] Its lead drug, OMS1620, blocks the receptor for ACTH, a hormone that over-drives the adrenal glands in some people. [15] It is aimed at congenital adrenal hyperplasia, an inherited hormone disorder, and at Cushing's syndrome. [15]

    Why it matters — The drug has only reached the first single-dose stage of a safety trial in healthy volunteers. [15] Its backers include GV, the venture arm of Google's parent company, and the UK government's British Business Bank. [15]

20. 21

    Galapagos's cell therapies sold to its ex-chief's start-up

    Lakefront Biotherapeutics, the Belgian company that used to be called Galapagos, has sold its unwanted cancer cell therapies. [16] The buyer, Armed Cell Therapeutics, is a Belgian start-up chaired by Paul Stoffels, a former Galapagos chief. [17] It pays 8 million euros up front and up to $230 million later. [17] The deal includes two 'armed' CAR-T therapies, immune cells engineered to attack cancer, which are close to human testing. [17]

    Why it matters — Galapagos had offered the projects to big drugmakers and found no serious interest. [16] Lakefront now works on drugs for autoimmune disease. [17]

21. 22

    How an Alzheimer's gene may strip nerve coating

    MIT scientists have found one way APOE4, the biggest inherited risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's, may harm the brain's wiring. [24] Nerve fibres are wrapped in a fatty coat called myelin, made by helper cells. [24] In those helper cells, APOE4 turned down a chemical signal called Wnt, and fat piled up as droplets instead of becoming coating. [24] Restoring the signal brought the coating back in lab-grown cells and in mice. [24]

    Why it matters — It points to a possible target for drugs, but the evidence comes from cells and mice, not patients. [24] The study is in Cell Stem Cell. [24]

22. 23

    Eating late linked to liver disease

    People who often ate after dinner or after bedtime had a 20% to 30% higher risk of liver disease, in a study of nearly 200,000 people. [22] Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University used three long-running US studies of nurses and other health workers. [22] The liver runs on a daily body clock, which may be one reason. [22] The study is in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. [22]

    Why it matters — It shows a link, not a cause, and people reported their own eating times. [22] The team is now running a trial that will track meal times directly. [22]

23. 24

    Northern Ireland's hospital doctors to strike

    Hospital doctors in Northern Ireland will strike for 24 hours on 20 November and again on 23 November over pay. [27] Resident doctors, who are still training, strike first, then senior doctors. [27] The BMA, the doctors' union, says their pay has fallen by more than 26% over 18 years. [27] Emergency care will continue, but most routine operations will be cancelled. [27]

    Why it matters — The Royal College of Nursing is also asking its members whether to strike. [27] All three groups of hospital doctors already struck in June. [27]

24. 25

    MPs find endometriosis costs women their jobs

    A report by a group of UK MPs found 47% of women with endometriosis had lost income because of their symptoms, and 28% had left a job. [28] Endometriosis can cause severe pain, tiredness, heavy bleeding and trouble getting pregnant, and about one in ten women have it. [28] Diagnosis can take years. [28] Fewer than half of employees with the condition had been given changes at work to help them. [28]

    Why it matters — One woman in the report paid about 6,000 pounds for private surgery because NHS waits were too long. [28] The UK health department says the condition is a priority in its women's health plan. [28]

25. 26

    A US lawmaker wants faster early drug trials

    Jake Auchincloss, a Democratic member of the US Congress from Massachusetts, plans a bill to speed up early drug trials. [21] It would copy Australia, which lets early trials start without first being checked by its national regulator. [21] He told the STAT Summit on Thursday that the US cannot match China's low trial costs, but should match its speed. [21] He argued against trade barriers aimed at China's biotech industry. [21]

    Why it matters — Biotech is a big part of Massachusetts's economy, and the industry's investors share his view. [21] He also called the FDA's fast-review vouchers political. [21]