From Washington, DC,

• Congress is out of session this week for the Thanksgiving holiday.

• Modern Healthcare reports,
  • “President Donald Trump said he hopes to secure a solution by Jan. 30 for an impending surge in health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, the first timeline he has publicly offered for what he has pitched as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
  • “Trump said in an interview with Fox News Radio Friday that Republican senators Rick Scott of Florida and Katie Britt of Alabama are working on the proposal.
  • “We have a Jan. 30 day coming up, I’d like to see if we could do it by then,” Trump said. “They say, ‘well, let’s go another year.’ And I said, ‘let’s see if we can get it done by Jan. 30.’”

• Federal News Network tells us,
  • “Last week’s conclusion of the record-breaking government shutdown was great news for federal employees in general. But for a few thousand specific feds, it was even better news. They’d been told they were about to lose their jobs completely, and as of Friday, [November 21, 2025] almost all of them have now had those notices formally rescinded.
  • “Filings the Justice Department submitted to a federal court in San Francisco on Friday indicate that each of the more than 3,000 federal workers who had received reduction in force (RIF) notices after the shutdown began have now been formally notified that those RIFs have been cancelled.
  • “That action came as a result of several provisions in the continuing resolution Congress passed last week to reopen the government. The legislation provided that not only any RIF notice an agency issued on Oct. 1 or later “shall have no force or effect,” but it also barred federal agencies from using any funding to conduct any further RIFs for as long as the current CR is in effect.”

• Healthcare Dive informs us,
  • “Oracle Health has received Qualified Health Information Network status under the federal government’s health data sharing framework, the technology giant said Thursday. 
  • “The designation allows the Oracle Health Information Network to transfer health information between providers, payers and government agencies through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. The HHS created the framework to facilitate the exchange of health records.
  • “Eleven data exchanges have now received QHIN status, more than double the number that were recognized when TEFCA went live at the end of 2023.” 

• There are sixteen days left in the Federal Benefits Open Season.

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• The Washington Post reports,
  • “A Washington [State] resident who was the first human case of bird flu in the U.S. since February died on Friday, state health officials said. The person was an older adult with underlying conditions and had been hospitalized since early November with a strain that was previously reported in animals but never before in humans.
  • “The person had been undergoing treatment for infection with H5N5 avian influenza, the health department said in a news release. State epidemiologist Scott Lindquist said last week that the person, who was hospitalized after developing high fever, confusion and respiratory distress, was “a severely ill patient.”
  • “State officials said the risk to the public remains low. No other people involved have tested positive for influenza, and public health officials are continuing to monitor anyone who was in contact with the patient — including more than 100 health care workers — for symptoms to ensure that human-to-human spread has not occurred, the health department said.
  • “That strain of the avian influenza virus, H5N5, had previously been reported in animals but not in humans. It is part of the family of avian influenza viruses and has been seen in wild birds in other U.S. states and Canada, state officials and experts have said.”

• The Wall Street Journal examines “why autoimmune diseases rise sharply after 50. Scientists are making progress in understanding and treating these disorders, which can go unrecognized for years.”
  • “While there is no sure way to prevent autoimmune disease, research suggests that keeping chronic inflammation in check—through a healthy diet, regular exercise, good sleep, stress control, and maintaining a healthy weight—can help support a calmer, more balanced immune system. By contrast, unproven supplements or treatments that claim to boost the immune system could do more harm than good.”
    
• Per MedPage Today,
  • “Rates of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, are surging in Texas, Florida, California, Oregon, and other states and localities across the country.
  • “The outbreaks are fueled by falling vaccination rates, fading immunity, and delays in public health tracking systems, according to interviews with state and federal health officials. Babies too young to be fully vaccinated are most at risk.
  • “Pertussis cases increase in a cyclical fashion driven by waning immunity, but the size of the outbreak and the potential for severe outcomes in children who cannot be vaccinated can be mitigated by high coverage and good communication to folks at risk,” said Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, a former head of the CDC’s immunization program, who resigned in August.”

• NPR Shots lets us know,
  • Millions of Americans have shed pounds with help from drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound.
  • But people who take these drugs often experience unpleasant side effects.
  • “They lose weight, which is a positive thing,” says Warren Yacawych of the University of Michigan, “but they experience such severe nausea and vomiting that patients stop treatment.”
  • “So, at this year’s Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, Yacawych and other researchers held a session to describe their efforts to understand and solve the side-effect problem.”
  • The article discusses the expert presentation.

• Medscape adds,
  • “The surge of demand for GLP-1s is likely very common in your practice, and during your follow-up discussions with patients, they may often share their progress on the medication. But some patients may share that they are not hitting weight-loss markers they thought they would. Some may even compare the rate of their weight loss to that of others they know.
  • As a primary care doctor, responding to this rhetoric is part of your role. [The article offers] some thoughts about messaging and directives to offer patients to get these conversations started and how to respond to feedback.
• and
  • A first-in-human study suggested that tirzepatide — a dual GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor agonist — modulated abnormal activity in the brain’s nucleus accumbens, thereby reducing food cravings and inducing weight loss in a patient with severe obesity.

From the U.S. healthcare business and artificial intelligence front,

• Fierce Pharma reports,
  • “Maryland is becoming the home away from home for British drugmaker AstraZeneca. On Friday, the biopharma powerhouse upped its ante in the Old Line State, saying it will invest $2 billion to increase its manufacturing presence there.
  • “The funding will allow AZ to nearly double the production capacity at its flagship biologics plant in Frederick, Maryland, and also provide for the manufacture of the company’s rare disease products there for the first time, AZ said.
  • “The company will also establish a clinical manufacturing site in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The facility, which was acquired last month in a $60 million lease transfer, is the former headquarters of vaccine specialist Novavax and will host the production of molecules for medical trials, AZ added.
  • “The outlay will create 200 additional jobs at the Frederick site and 100 more at the new Gaithersburg facility, which is 25 miles to the southeast.”
• and
  • “A Novo Nordisk challenge has driven a Pennsylvania-based telehealth company to voluntarily discontinue compounded semaglutide product claims, adding to the Danish drugmaker’s string of wins against companies selling copycat versions of its GLP-1 blockbuster.
  • “Novo challenged claims made by Regen Doctors via BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD). The challenge centered on express and implied claims about the superiority, safety, efficacy and health benefits of Regen’s compounded semaglutide product. Novo sells the GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy.
  • “After the NAD began looking into the challenge, Regen told the self-regulatory body that it had permanently discontinued the claims, according to an NAD report Thursday. Regen’s actions prompted the NAD to stop reviewing the claims, and the watchdog said it will treat the discontinued claims as if it recommended that Regen stopped making the statements.
  • “The case is part of a series of challenges Novo has recently brought against semaglutide compounders via the NAD. Since June, Bayview Pharmacy, Medicine Center Pharmacyand Fletcher Family Medical Center have all voluntarily discontinued claims about compounded semaglutide. The NAD reported the conclusion of the Fletcher case one week before sharing details of Regen’s decision to discontinue its claims.”

• Fierce Healthcare provides a look at how UnitedHealthcare is developing, deploying AI solutions.

• HR Dive informs us,
  • “Despite increasing adoption of artificial intelligence tools at work, many U.S. employees remain uneasy about how AI may shape the future of work — and the companies that use it, according to a Monday report from SHL, a talent insight firm.
  • “Notably, 74% of workers said being interviewed by an AI agent would change their perception of the company, with 37% saying it’s “impersonal” and 23% saying it’s “innovative.” Although most workers said they’re open to interacting with an AI interviewer, they still want human involvement and accountability in the process, the report found.” * * *
  • “By 2026, 1 in 3 companies say AI will run their hiring process, according to a report from Resume.org. More than half already use AI in hiring, yet a similar amount also expressed concerns about AI screening out qualified candidates, introducing bias or lacking human oversight.”