Africa's health ministers meet on Ebola as only 3 of 31 countries are judged ready, and Congo's cases show no fall in 11 weeks

The rest of the day

16 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Medicare's $50 weight-loss drugs reach 500,000 people

   Eli Lilly says more than 500,000 people get its weight-loss drugs through Medicare. [5] Medicare is the US government's health insurance for people aged 65 and over. [5] A new US pilot scheme lets them get the drugs for $50 a month. [5] People paying for themselves pay Lilly $449 a month. [5] 7 in 10 people new to the pilot chose Lilly's drugs. [5] From July to September, Lilly's prices fell 15%, while it sold 53% more. [5] Outside the US, its prices fell 29%. [5] Most of that came from China adding Mounjaro, Lilly's diabetes shot, to its paid-for list. [5]

   Why it matters — Lower prices came with far more people using the drugs. [5] Lilly plans to ask regulators to approve retatrutide, its next weight-loss drug, next year. [5]

2. 03

   Merck plans a final trial of a two-target cancer drug

   Merck, a large US drugmaker, will start a final-stage trial of MK-2010 in 2027. [6] MK-2010 is an antibody, a protein that locks onto two targets in the body at once. [6] Merck is developing it with SBP Group, a Chinese drugmaker. [6] The trial will pair it with sac-TMT, an antibody carrying chemotherapy, in untreated lung cancer. [6] Merck's finance chief called 2027 "another year of investment" in new drugs. [6] She said growth of Keytruda, Merck's biggest cancer drug, is slowing. [6] Cheaper copies of 3 older Merck drugs will cut its 2027 sales by over $2 billion. [6]

   Why it matters — Merck needs new drugs because Keytruda will lose its patent protection. [6] Patients on those 3 older drugs will be able to buy cheaper copies. [6]

3. 04

   Lilly drops an Alzheimer's drug

   Eli Lilly has dropped mevidalen, an experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease. [7] Lilly listed it on Thursday among drugs "removed from the pipeline." [7] A Lilly spokesperson said it "did not meet our high internal bar for success." [7] Its mid-stage trial tested it in 304 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's dementia. [7] Lilly has not published the results. [7] The drug boosts signals at a brain receptor for dopamine, a chemical that carries signals. [7] In 2021 it failed another trial, in Lewy body dementia, a different memory disease. [7]

   Why it matters — Lilly has paid $6.3bn for Centessa, for sleep, and $2.8bn for AtaiBeckley, for depression. [7] Lilly still sells Kisunla, an approved Alzheimer's drug. [7]

4. 05

   Gene therapy meeting hears a nine-year result

   ESGCT, Europe's gene and cell therapy society, is meeting this week in Hamburg, Germany. [8] Giuliana Ferrari's team in Italy treated beta-thalassaemia in a trial that began in 2015. [8] Beta-thalassaemia is a blood disease caused by faults in a haemoglobin gene. [8] Some patients still need no blood transfusions 9 years later. [8] Others have had to start transfusions again. [8] A new trial aims to make the treatment affordable, and its first 2 patients have joined. [8] Bill Schief, of Scripps Research and Moderna, reported progress toward an HIV vaccine. [8] Each year 1.2 million people catch HIV and 570,000 die. [8]

   Why it matters — 9 years of results show a one-time gene treatment can last, but not for everyone. [8]

5. 06

   A pancreatic cancer vaccine stirs immune cells

   A vaccine against pancreatic cancer stirred an immune response in nearly every patient checked. [9] The Mayo Clinic-led trial gave the vaccine, camupepimut, to 96 patients and not to 48. [9] All had already had surgery and chemotherapy, and scans showed no cancer left. [9] It targets 7 common faults in KRAS, a gene changed in about 90% of these cancers. [9] Of 90 patients checked, 98.9% made stronger immune cells against KRAS. [9] But the time until cancer came back was not clearly different between the 2 groups. [9] The results are published in Nature Medicine, a medical journal. [9]

   Why it matters — Pancreatic cancer comes back in up to 80% of patients after treatment. [9] A planned final-stage trial will add more booster doses. [9]

6. 07

   Parkinson's cell company raises $140 million

   Aspen Neuroscience, a San Diego company, raised $140.6 million selling shares on Thursday. [10] It sold about 9.4 million shares at $15 each. [10] It had asked investors for $15 to $17 a share. [11] In Parkinson's disease, brain cells that make dopamine die, causing trouble walking and talking. [10] Aspen turns a patient's own skin cells into new dopamine-making cells for the brain. [10] About $110 million of the money is meant for a final-stage trial. [11] Aspen plans to start that trial by the end of next year. [10]

   Why it matters — BlueRock, a Bayer company, is already running a final trial of its own cell treatment. [10] Aspen says using a patient's own cells avoids long courses of immune-lowering drugs. [10]

7. 08

   Penguin die-off was avian cholera, not bird flu

   Thousands of Adelie penguins died on Antarctica's Danger Islands in early 2024. [12] Scientists expected bird flu, which had reached Antarctica in late 2023. [12] Tests on the dead penguins found only low levels of the bird flu virus. [12] Under the microscope, scientists found bacteria that cause avian cholera, a bird disease. [12] Avian cholera differs from human cholera and is not seen as a big risk to people. [12] The findings were published in October in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal. [12] Nobody had looked for it on the Antarctic Peninsula for 25 years. [12]

   Why it matters — Its strain is very close to one on Ile Amsterdam, an island 5,000 miles away. [12] So die-offs blamed on bird flu may hide other diseases nobody is checking for. [12]

8. 09

   The brain clears out neurons with big DNA errors

   About 26% of neurons before birth carry large DNA errors, a Nature study found. [13] The errors are stretches of DNA that are copied twice or missing. [13] After birth the share falls to about 6.2%. [13] The faulty neurons seem to fail to form synapses, the links between brain cells. [13] Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital researchers read the DNA of over 1,500 neurons from 16 people. [13]

   Why it matters — Such DNA errors may play a part in autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy. [13] The team is now checking whether this clean-out works differently in autism. [13]

9. 10

   Measles: Europe's vaccination falls short

   The US has had more than 4,500 measles cases this year, about twice last year's. [14] Measles is one of the most catching diseases there is. [14] People can spread it for about 4 days before its rash appears. [14] In Europe, 92% get a first dose of the vaccine and 88% a second. [14] Europe's disease agency says stopping its spread needs 95% to have both doses. [14] Bangladesh has 65,430 cases, Indonesia 46,578 and Guatemala 31,222. [14]

   Why it matters — Travellers can carry measles across borders before they know they are ill. [14] A forecast in JAMA, a US medical journal, says measles could settle in the US again. [14]

10. 11

    Judge keeps a Sackler mansion sale on track

    A US judge on Wednesday refused to let Richard Sackler block a family mansion's sale. [15] Sackler once ran Purdue Pharma, which made the painkiller OxyContin. [15] The sale money goes to a $7.4 billion settlement over the opioid crisis. [15] Opioids are strong painkillers, and the settlement covers tens of thousands of lawsuits. [15] The Sackler family must pay over $7 billion across 15 years. [15] Sackler and his wife, Lin Gao, argued the Greenwich, Connecticut, house is theirs. [15] Judge Sean Lane said: "it is not." [15]

    Why it matters — The money goes to families of some of the 900,000 Americans killed by opioids since 1999. [15] Purdue closed in May, and Knoa Pharma took its assets, with profits going to the crisis. [15]

11. 12

    Baby gripe water recalled over hidden alcohol

    The UAE recalled Babies' Magic Tea Baby Sleep Gripe Water over hidden alcohol. [16] It was sold as a supplement for colic and sleep, for babies over two weeks old. [16] US drug regulator tests found about 8.3% ethanol, the alcohol in drinks. [16] Tests also found methanol and isopropanol, two other alcohols missing from the label. [16] Its maker, Pacific Health Sciences, recalled one batch earlier this month, the FDA said. [16]

    Why it matters — The FDA says alcohol can harm a baby's brain, and high doses can slow breathing. [16] The FDA told parents to stop using it and return it for a refund. [16] The product had no licence to be sold in the UAE. [16]

12. 13

    A top US health official questions journals

    Martin Kulldorff, a top official at the US health department, gave a lecture on Wednesday. [17] He is a statistician known for a declaration against Covid lockdowns. [17] He asked: "Why have journals decide what can be published or not?" [17] He said gatekeeping by journals hurts trust in science. [17] He also blamed the US measles rise on check-ups missed during Covid lockdowns. [17] Public health experts dispute that claim. [17]

    Why it matters — Polls show more Americans now believe vaccines cause autism. [17] The main study making that claim was withdrawn in 2010. [17]

13. 14

    A carbon dioxide switch for regrowth, in mice

    A newborn mouse's first breaths switch off its cells' ability to regrow, a study suggests. [18] Breathing out carbon dioxide shuts down a protein switch called mTOR. [18] mTOR controls cell growth in the brain, heart and muscles. [18] Adult mice that breathed air with 10% carbon dioxide got mTOR working again. [18] Their nerve cells could regrow after injury once more. [18] Zhigang He of Harvard Medical School led the work. [18]

    Why it matters — Switching mTOR on can make cells grow out of control, a cancer risk. [18] This was only in mice, and safe doses for people are not known. [18]

14. 15

    Cold helps worms live longer through a muscle chemical

    Cold makes worms live longer through a chemical their muscles make, a Nature study found. [19] At 15C, muscles of C. elegans, a tiny lab worm, make more BH2, a chemical. [19] BH2 travels to other tissues and helps keep proteins from clumping. [19] Boosting the same pathway made worms live longer even when warm. [19] The team includes David Vilchez of the University of Cologne, Germany. [19] In human cells, BH2 cut clumps of proteins linked to Huntington's disease and ALS. [19]

    Why it matters — So far it works only in worms and in human cells in dishes, not in people. [19]

15. 16

    A cell map of a whole adult animal with a backbone

    Scientists made the first map of all the cell types in an adult backboned animal. [20] The animal is Danionella cerebrum, a see-through fish about 12mm long. [20] Its brain holds about 650,000 neurons and can be seen through its head. [20] The Whitehead Institute team read gene activity in over 600,000 cells. [20] The study is in Science, and the map is free online. [20] The fish can regrow parts of its brain, and the map tracks how. [20]

    Why it matters — It gives scientists a baseline to see how injury, ageing or drugs change every cell. [20]

16. 17

    Genmab's head and neck cancer drug passes a final trial

    On Wednesday Genmab said its drug petosemtamab, given with Keytruda, cut death risk by 50%. [21] The final-stage trial was in head and neck cancer that had come back or spread. [21] The comparison group got Keytruda, a cancer drug made by Merck, on its own. [21] The odds that tumours shrank were 3.17 times higher with both drugs. [21] Petosemtamab is an antibody that latches onto two targets on cancer cells, EGFR and LGR5. [21] Genmab got the drug by buying the company Merus for $8 billion last year. [21] No new safety problems showed up, Genmab said. [21]

    Why it matters — These are early headline results, and the full data will be shown at a later meeting. [21] Genmab will now discuss the results with regulators around the world. [21]