Over the past several decades, the overweight and obesity epidemic in the USA has resulted in a significant health and economic burden. The prevalence of obesity has outpaced the increase in overweight over time, especially among adolescents. Nearly 20% of U.S. children have obesity. Existing policies have failed to address overweight and obesity. Without major reform, the forecasted trends will be devastating at the individual and population level, and the associated disease burden and economic costs will continue to escalate. Kimberly Gudzune & team discussed the introduction and need for comprehensive care for obesity management.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first global guideline on managing sickle cell disease (SCD) during pregnancy—marking a critical step in addressing the serious health risks this condition poses for both mothers and babies. SCD, a group of inherited blood disorders, causes red blood cells to become abnormally shaped, leading to complications such as severe anemia, pain crises, infections, and life-threatening events like strokes and organ failure.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Yeztugo (lenacapavir), a powerful new HIV-prevention drug developed by Gilead Sciences. Given via injection just twice a year, Yeztugo has shown remarkable success in clinical trials, virtually eliminating HIV transmission among recipients. It significantly outperformed existing daily oral PrEP drugs like Truvada, cutting infection rates by 89% among gay and bisexual men and transgender individuals. In a separate trial among cisgender women in sub-Saharan Africa, none of the participants who received Yeztugo contracted HIV.
On June 12, 2025, the FDA approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a new treatment option for adults with resectable, locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that shows PD-L1 expression with a combined positive score (CPS) of 1 or higher. This approval introduces a new approach to treating head and neck cancer that begins before surgery and continues afterward.
Dapagliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, has shown potential in improving metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) without worsening liver fibrosis, according to findings published on June 4 in The BMJ. The multicenter, double-blind, randomized trial conducted across six tertiary hospitals in China involved 154 adults with biopsy-confirmed MASH. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 10 mg of dapagliflozin or a placebo once daily for 48 weeks. The primary endpoint was improvement in MASH — defined as a reduction of ≥2 points in the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity score (NAS) or achieving a NAS ≤3 — without worsening fibrosis.
