Simplicity is a virtue.

From Washington, DC

• Politico reports,
  • “House GOP leaders released text Friday for a bill to fund the vast majority of the federal government from the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1 until after the midterm elections — bypassing the bipartisan appropriations process and daring Democrats to pick a shutdown fight months before voters head to the polls.
  • “Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he plans to put the legislation on the floor next week.
  • “The measure would fund the government through Dec. 4 and, as Republican leaders promised, would not include additional policy riders or unrelated provisions.”

• Roll Call offers a wrap up of this week’s activities on Capitol Hill.

• STAT News relates,
  • “Pretty much everyone who cares about public health agrees that it’s a good idea to help people quit smoking, the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. Doctors may soon get some extra encouragement to lend a hand, thanks to proposed changes in Medicare’s physician fee schedules.
  • “Physicians who offer counseling on quitting cigarettes or other tobacco products during visits with patients would get a 19% increase in reimbursement, according to a few paragraphs buried in the 1,592-page document released this week. The same adjustment would also apply to assessments of, and interventions for, alcohol and substance misuse during doctors’ visits.
  • “Given the evidence supported role these services play in preventing and managing chronic disease […] we believe that valuation should more accurately reflect the clinical intensity and work associated with these time-based services,” the proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services explains. Comments on the proposal are due Sept. 14. 
  • “The prioritization of cessation as a service is long overdue, and we’re very excited about it,” said Anne DiGiulio, the American Lung Association’s senior director of nationwide tobacco cessation and health policy.”

• Health Day adds,
  • “For people assigned to smoking very low nicotine-content cigarettes (VLNCs), there is minimal evidence for compensation for reduced nicotine levels, according to a review published online July 15 in JAMA Network Open.
  • “Rachel L. Denlinger-Apte, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and colleagues examined whether people who smoke may increase their smoking to compensate for the reduced nicotine levels when smoking VLNCs for prolonged periods. Data were obtained from 17 randomized controlled trials published between 2010 and 2024, representing 5,500 adolescents and adults who smoked cigarettes daily or nondaily. A subset of 2,454 participants from seven trials were included in the pooled meta-analysis.”

• Food Dive relates,
  • “The FDA’s acting head of food on Tuesday [July 14] admitted crafting its highly anticipated definition of ultraprocessed foods is proving “quite challenging,” though he added it’s still a “priority” for the agency.
  • “Just because it’s a tough challenge, it doesn’t mean it’s something that we should shy away from,” Donald Prater, FDA’s acting deputy commissioner for food, said during a keynote at the IFT First conference in Chicago.

• Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News adds,
  • “Ketogenic diets, originally developed in the 1920s to treat epilepsy, have been adapted in the past few decades as a strategy to lose weight or increase lifespan. This type of diet (a high percentage of fat, low percentage of carbohydrates, and normal or reduced amounts of protein) forces the body to burn fatty acids for energy in place of carbohydrates such as glucose. Burning these lipids produces ketone bodies—primarily β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetoacetate—as byproducts of fatty acid metabolism. The impact of ketogenic diets on the gastrointestinal tract remains poorly understood.
  • “In recent years, scientists investigated whether this type of diet might affect the development of cancer. While some research has shown that the diet may protect against the development of colon cancer, a new study suggests that in the small intestine, a ketogenic diet may increase the risk of cancer—with a mechanism through fatty acid oxidation rather than ketone metabolism.”
  • “This work appears in Nature in the paper, “Ketogenic diet mediates intestinal tumorigenesis through lipids not ketones.”

From the Food and Drug Administration,

• Fierce Pharma reports,
  • “With two approved medicines to treat primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) and a third therapy in phase 3 testing, Novartis is on its way to cornering the market for the indication.
  • “On Friday its first drug to hit the market for IgAN, Fabhalta, gained a full blessing from the FDA, with the U.S. regulator converting the drug’s accelerated approval into a traditional nod. Fabhalta is now endorsed to slow kidney function decline in adult IgAN patients who are at risk for disease progression. 
  • “The original, speedy IgAN approval for the first-in-class factor B complement inhibitor came two years ago to reduce proteinuria.”

• Cardiovascular Business relates,
  • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shared updated recommendations about recalled thoracic stent grafts. Customers were previously told they could still use the devices as long as they were aware of the risk and knew how to respond if an issue occurred. Now, however, the FDA is emphasizing that these devices should be returned to the manufacturer and not be used to treat any other patients.”

From the judicial front,

• Healthcare Dive reports,
  • “A federal judge has temporarily halted provisions of a rule from the Trump administration meant to reshape the Affordable Care Act exchanges days before they were scheduled to go into effect.
  • “On Thursday, a Maryland district court determined the coalition of cities and provider groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the rule would suffer “irreparable harm” from the policies, including the expansion of bare-bones catastrophic coverage and stricter verification of enrollees’ eligibility for subsidies.
  • “The stay is a victory for insurers, given it staves off further disruption to the already destabilized ACA marketplaces. However, the relief may be short-lived, as some of the policies codified in the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will be enacted in 2028.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced today,
  • “As of July 17, 2026, the amount of acute respiratory illness causing people to seek health care is very low.
  • “RSV activity is very low in most areas of the country. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations for RSV are low but remain highest among infants and children younger than 4 years old.
  • “COVID-19 activity is very low and stable nationally but is beginning to show early signs of an increase, mainly in the South.
  • “Seasonal influenza activity is low.
  • “Parainfluenza (PIV), a respiratory virus that can cause illnesses such as croup, is elevated nationally. Rhinovirus/enterovirus (RV/EV) activity is elevated in some regions. Whooping cough (pertussis) continues to circulate at lower levels compared to post-pandemic peaks.”

• The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP reports,
  • “With 29 newly confirmed cases, the the US measles total is just 29 cases short of last year’s sobering total, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update today.
  • “The CDC announced 2,260 confirmed cases so far in 2026, all but 15 of them locally acquired. The total for all of last year was 2,289 infections, which was the most since 1991. The country could lose its measles elimination status this fall, which it gained in 2000.
  • Of the 2,260 cases for the year, 20% of infections are in children age 5 and under, and 70% involve kids and young adults to age 19. Six percent of patients have been hospitalized, compared with 10% in 2025. Among all measles patients, 93% are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccine status. 
  • “No measles deaths have been reported this year, compared with three in 2025.”

• MedPage Today adds,
  • “Declining U.S. vaccination rates have led to a resurgence in large measles outbreaks.
  • “Two papers examining South Carolina and Utah’s outbreak showed that hypoxemia and pneumonia were the most common conditions leading to hospitalization for measles.
  • “In the South Carolina report, two of 13 hospitalized patients developed measles encephalitis, a life-threatening complication that can cause brain damage.”

• The American Hospital Association points out,
  • “A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released July 16 found that wastewater surveillance failed to detect an internationally circulating measles genotype that accounted for about 5% to 10% of U.S. measles cases in 2025, highlighting potential challenges of using wastewater surveillance as a public health tool. The report said that of two unrelated measles cases reported to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in February 2026, wastewater surveillance detected one case before the case was reported. The second, caused by the international B3 genotype, was undetected. Public health officials later released a modified laboratory procedure that improved the detection of the B3 genotype. The CDC said that wastewater testing should be standardized and revalidated against circulating viruses and supported by publicly available whole-genome sequencing data.”
    
• The Washington Post reports,
  • “Taylor Farms announced Friday that it is “voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market,” after federal investigators identified some of the lettuce it provided to Taco Bell restaurants as linked to one of the largest U.S. outbreaks of cyclosporiasis this summer. 
  • “The company said in a statement that it made the decision based on information provided by the Food and Drug Administration, whose investigators had traced the outbreak to “a specific independent farm” representing less than 1 percent of the U.S. iceberg lettuce supply. The company added that it would remove all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely “out of an abundance of caution.”
  • “The company said no other Taylor Fresh Foods products across the country are impacted. It said no Taylor Farms branded salad kits contain iceberg lettuce.” * * *
  • “Other companies have begun to respond to a parasite-borne illness that has sickened thousands, and the federal health investigation has widened beyond Taco Bell restaurants. Sysco, one of the world’s largest food suppliers, on Thursday voluntarily stopped distributing certain iceberg lettuce products from Mexico after the agency said it was tracing where the contaminated lettuce may have been distributed throughout the food supply.”

• The Wall Street Journal explains “What to Know About the Cyclosporiasis Outbreak and How to Stay Safe”
  • “More than 30 states have reported cases of the illness. Taco Bell’s lettuce is linked to cases in at least five states.” * * *
  • “Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that can cause vomiting and diarrhea, but it typically comes on within 12 to 48 hours of exposure and lasts one to three days. 
  • “Cyclospora, on the other hand, can cause weeks of relapsing diarrhea where someone gets sick, feels better, and then gets sick again, said Caitlin Rivers, director of the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It lasts much longer than a stomach bug where you’re sick for a day and you bounce back.” 
  • “Another big difference: Many foodborne illnesses, like norovirus, are highly infectious and spread between humans through something as simple as touching a doorknob. 
  • “One piece of good news: Cyclosporiasis is rarely contagious between people.” 

• The Washington Post tells us,
  • “Plumes of thick, toxic wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada are billowing into the United States. The phenomenon, where smoke blots out the blue sky overhead, making the air appear milky-white or even orange, has become a relatively regular fixture of summers where out-of-control wildfires in the West bring noxious smoke downwind.” * * *
  • “There’s essentially a west-to-east conveyor belt that’s pumping high-altitude smoke eastward. That’s because the smoke is surfing the jet stream, a river of swiftly moving winds in the upper atmosphere. The jet stream is cresting around a ridge of high pressure parked over the central states.
  • “The smoke is also being steered by persistent troughing, or areas of low pressure, east of the Hudson Bay in northern Quebec. That counterclockwise-spinning low induces northwesterly winds, which are winds that blow from the northwest and pump the smoke in a southeast direction.
  • “That brings surface-level smoke into the Lower 48 in copious quantities. Medium-range weather models suggest a similar pattern continues into late July, meaning smoke will continue taking this trajectory.” * * *
  • “As of early Friday morning, Chicago, Detroit, D.C. and New York City were the most polluted major cities in the world — exceeding Delhi and Kolkata, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; and most major cities in China.”
    
• Kaufmann Hall notes,
  • “Less than half of adults in rural communities have had a routine medical visit or cancer screening in the past year, according to a recent survey by the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The broader survey of U.S. adults found that half of all respondents expressed concerns and confusion about the cost of medical screenings. Nearly 15% of respondents also expressed concerns about the costs of follow-up appointments and lost wages. The news comes as the American Association for Cancer Research’s latestprogress report finds that declines in cancer death rates have been slower among rural residents than those living in urban areas.”

• The Wall Street Journal journalist lets us know “I Tested My Blood for Microplastics. I Got a Number, but Few Answers.
  • “Plastics are accumulating in our bodies, but scientists aren’t sure how bad that is for our health.”
  • “Microplastics are ubiquitous. Bottled water and processed food are big culprits. So is clothing, furniture and just about everything else.
  • “It’s hard to find things that are not made of plastic,” says Phoebe Stapleton, an associate professor in the department of pharmacology and toxicology at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University. 
  • “And they get into our bodies through both ingestion and inhalation. There hasn’t been a tissue or organ in the body where microplastics haven’t been found. Lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, brain, testicles, the fluid in our eyes, and ovaries—all have microplastics, says Stapleton.
  • “No wonder there’s more interest in testing. The blood test has been commercially available since 2023. I purchased it for $135 through Bryan Johnson’s longevity health site, Blueprint.” 

• STAT News informs us,
  • “For the last year, a small California startup has been making extraordinary claims about the ability of its technology to potentially treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy — and maybe a slew of other genetic diseases, too.
  • “The company, Sonothera, does not yet have clinical data. But it’s presented data in animals so stunning that other experts can’t quite wrap their minds around it.” * * *
  • “The technology in question is ultrasound — yes, the same technology used for imaging pregnancies. Sonothera is using it to deliver replacement genes into the muscles of mice and monkeys.
  • “The approach marks a radical departure in the gene-therapy field, which has long relied on viruses to ferry genes into cells. Those viruses, while occasionally powerful, have severe drawbacks. They can only deliver genes of a certain size and can only be administered once, after which patients develop immunity. If the first treatment didn’t get enough of the gene to enough cells — well, you’d better have some other fix.” * * *
  • “Answers may come soon in clinical trials. Sonothera’s backers point to multiple pieces of supporting evidence, including improved muscle function in mice. And the company is still optimizing its therapy. 
  • “For humans, Sonothera’s goals are far more modest than what was achieved in some of its studies: a 15% increase in dystrophin, while creating protein in at least 20% of a patient’s muscle fibers.”
    
• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “GSK is discontinuing trials of an experimental chronic cough medicine it bought in a $2 billion deal three years ago, announcing Friday that camlipixant had failed to meet nearly all of the goals in two Phase 3 trials. The British pharmaceutical giant said the “limited efficacy demonstrated is unlikely to transform patient care.”
  • “The termination closes a blockbuster opportunity for GSK, which hoped to add camlipixant to a portfolio of respiratory drugs that includes asthma and COPD treatments like Trelegy and Anoro. The company said it is continuing Phase 2 trials in people with irritable bowel syndrome.
  • “Camlipixant’s failure follows that of two others in the “P2X3 antagonist” class that were developed by Bayer and Merck & Co, the latter of which spent more than $500 million to gain control of its drug. The setback also clears away a threat to Trevi Therapeutics, which is advancing a different type of treatment in chronic cough.”
• and
  • “Merck & Co.’s partner Kelun-Biotech said its experimental medicine sac-TMT helped patients with a form of lung cancer stave off disease progression better than a standard regimen including chemotherapy in a new Phase 3 study.
  • “The trial, conducted in China, included patients with locally advanced or metastastic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer whose tumor cells don’t have enough of a protein called PD-L1. When working properly, PD-L1 helps the immune system focus on killing diseased cells instead of healthy ones. But too much or too little of this protein can throw the system off kilter.
  • “Kelun previously saw success with sac-TMT in PD-L1-positive patients and is now tackling the “negative” patients who represent what it calls a “therapeutic bottleneck.” Sac-TMT is the first so-called antibody drug conjugate to succeed in a Phase 3 study of this patient population in combination with an immunotherapy like Keytruda, Kelun said Tuesday [July 14].”

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

• Beckers Hospital Review reports,
  • “Vascular surgery is projected to have the highest shortages of physicians, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis found.
  • “The HRSA workforce simulation model assesses the adequacy of the nation’s projected workforce supply for 35 physician specialties from 2023 through 2038.
  • “Across all specialties, there is a projected shortage of 141,160 full-time equivalent physicians by 2038. Only five of the 35 physician specialties are expected to see a surplus of workers. The shortages in some specialties can be mitigated by increasing the use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, according to the center.”
• and 
  • “Novant Health is the latest health system to launch round-the-clock virtual primary care that uses AI to assess patients before connecting them with a clinician, joining at least seven other systems offering similar 24/7 care models.”
  • The article lists seven other health systems using this model.
• and
  • The pandemic revealed a demand for telehealth, forcing the healthcare industry to rethink how and where care could be delivered. 
  • Patients and providers alike discovered that high-quality care doesn’t have to mean an in-person visit. Hospitals, health systems and healthcare companies rapidly expanded their telehealth offerings accordingly.
  • The momentum hasn’t slowed, and today’s telehealth landscape is defined by smarter platforms, broader access and solutions designed to bring expert care directly to patients regardless of geography, mobility, or circumstance. 
  • [The article lists] 272 telehealth companies to know. 

• STAT News relates,
  • “Every day, doctors turn to specialized calculators to make decisions about their patients’ care. Kidney performance? There’s a calculator for that. Chance of a successful vaginal birth after a previous C-section? There’s a calculator for that. 
  • “Medicine has accumulated hundreds of these clinical scores and decision-making tools, and their numbers continue to grow along with the scale of clinical data. But just because a calculator exists doesn’t mean doctors should always trust its output. 
  • “In clinical practice, a lot of the tools that we use, we genuinely have no idea how limited it is in its validation,” said health systems researcher and gastroenterologist Shazia Siddique. That is why MDCalc, the company Siddique joined last year, is launching a quality-rating system to apply to the more than 800 clinical tools and calculators that doctors use through its site.”

• Per Fierce Pharma,
  • “Following the Independence Day holiday, the overall GLP-1 market was down 5.1% week over week as measured by total prescriptions across obesity and diabetes uses, according to IQVIA data cited by Citi.
  • “In the obesity field specifically, total scripts for Eli Lilly’s Zepbound shrank by 3.1% sequentially to a little below 660K, while Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy dipped 4.4% to about 448.5K.
  • “Against this backdrop, Lilly’s oral Foundayo seemed to enjoy a small inflection point, with a total 24,303 scripts notably breaking away from its roughly 20K level in the prior five weeks.  
  • “Meanwhile, joining the bigger trend, Wegovy pill scripts dropped to 147.5K during the week, versus about 153K the prior week or 161.5K at its peak. But the contribution of the oral version to the overall Wegovy scripts remained stable at around a third, per Citi’s note.” 

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “Cash-strapped biotechnology company Jasper Therapeutics has gained a financial lifeline through a merger with a privately held immune drug developer.
  • “Jasper said Thursday it has completed an all-stock acquisition of Kira Pharmaceuticals and, alongside that deal, raised $132 million in a private stock offering. The new funding will enable Jasper, which had just $14 million in cash at the end of March, to operate through the second half of 2028. The combined company will retain the Jasper stock ticker, but have a bigger pipeline that now includes two immune disease drugs Kira has been developing.”