From Washington, DC

• The Senate and the House of Representatives will be in session on Capitol Hill this week for Committee business and floor voting.

• The House Budget Committee will resume consideration of the budget reconciliation bill tonight at 10 pm ET.

• The New York Times reports that “The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine, but only for older adults and for others over age 12 who have at least one medical condition that puts them at high risk from Covid.”

From the public health and medical research front,

• The New York Times further reports,
  • “Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with debilitating bladder conditions.
  • “The operation was performed earlier this month by a pair of surgeons from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California on a 41-year-old man who had lost much of his bladder capacity from treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer.
  • “I was a ticking time bomb,” the patient, Oscar Larrainzar, said on Thursday during a follow-up appointment with his doctors. “But now I have hope.”
  • “The doctors plan to perform bladder transplants in four more patients as part of a clinical trial to get a sense of outcomes like bladder capacity and graft complications before pursuing a larger trial to expand its use.”
• and
  • “Kristin Kramer woke up early on a Tuesday morning 10 years ago because one of her dogs needed to go out. Then, a couple of odd things happened.
  • “When she tried to call her other dog, “I couldn’t speak,” she said. As she walked downstairs to let them into the yard, “I noticed that my right hand wasn’t working.”
  • “But she went back to bed, “which was totally stupid,” said Ms. Kramer, now 54, an office manager in Muncie, Ind. “It didn’t register that something major was happening,” especially because, reawakening an hour later, “I was perfectly fine.”
  • “So she “just kind of blew it off” and went to work.
  • “It’s a common response to the neurological symptoms that signal a T.I.A., a transient ischemic attack or ministroke. At least 240,000 Americans experience one each year, with the incidence increasing sharply with age.” * * *
  • “Now, a large epidemiological study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, published in JAMA Neurology, points to another reason to take T.I.A.s seriously: Over five years, study participants’ performance on cognitive tests after a T.I.A. drops as steeply as it does among victims of a full-on stroke.” * * *
  • “An accompanying editorial by Dr. Eric Smith, a neurologist at the University of Calgary, was pointedly headlined “Transient Ischemic Attack — Not So Transient After All!”
    
• Medscape adds,
  • Is it time for universal screening for atrial fibrillation (AF), the most commonly treated type of arrhythmia that sets people up for strokes?
  • The question is important. While estimates of prevalence vary, a recent study found AF affects about 4% of the adult population or about 10 million in the United States. More than 795,000 people in the United States have a strokeeach year, and AF is blamed for 1 in 7.
  • For now, however, US organizations that issue guidelines and many leading cardiologists agree: It’s not yet warranted and may result in anticoagulation overtreatment, along with what they call the “nontrivial” risk for bleeding from that treatment.
  • However, it’s definitely a stay tuned situation, as researchers continue to investigate whether widespread screening can reduce the number of strokes in the broad population, others look at the role of “smart” technology, and still others focus on subsets of the population that might benefit most from routine screening.

• The Washington Post points out,
  • “Eating an unhealthy diet is tied to an earlier first period, a new analysis suggests.
  • “The study linked a girl’s first menstrual period — a milestone known as menarche — to what she ate, showing ties between potentially inflammatory diets rich in processed and refined foods, red meat and beverages such as soda and an earlier onset of menstruation.
  • “Published in Human Reproduction, the study looked at 7,530 participants in the Growing Up Today Study, an ongoing study that evaluates factors thought to influence health across a lifetime. Participants enrolled in 1996 and 2004 and answered questionnaires about diet and activity, general health, family history, demographic factors and when they got their first period.
  • “Researchers assessed participants’ diets using two rubrics: the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, a score based on participants’ adherence to a healthy diet, and the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern, which identifies diets linked to inflammation. These potentially inflammatory diets are higher in processed foods, beverages like soda and juice, and red meat.
  • “Ninety-three percent of participants started their period during the study, at a median age of 13.1 years. But the age of menarche varied among participants with different diets. Overall, having a healthier diet predicted later menarche, and those who ate the healthiest diet were 8 percent less likely to get their first period in the next month. The association remained after researchers adjusted for body mass index, height and neighborhood socioeconomic status.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The Wall Street Journal let us know,
  • “A government crackdown on cheaper copies of Ozempic and similar diabetes and weight-loss drugs was intended to shut the door on that booming market.
  • “It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. 
  • “Instead, some compounding pharmacies and telehealth companies that make the copies have found new ways in. They are making and selling dosages slightly different from the standard, FDA-approved amounts or including additives such as vitamins B3 and B12. Others have changed how the drug is taken, switching from injectables to under the tongue drops or pills.
  • “These providers are relying on a law that allows bespoke versions of drugs that are unavailable commercially. Though some patients report delays in receiving the compounded medications, many are still getting them—at least for now—said patients and industry professionals. 

• MedTech Dive tells us,
  • “Siemens Healthineers said Wednesday it is investing $150 million to expand production in the U.S.
  • “Siemens is relocating manufacturing operations for its radiation oncology business Varian from Mexico to the U.S. The company said the change will add around 50 jobs in California.
  • “The company is also building a 60,000 square foot “Experience Center” in North Carolina, investing $141 million in a research and innovation district that it has been involved with since 2023.”