STAT+: Pharmalittle: Weight loss drugs are being paired with bariatric surgery; Carl Icahn plans to oust Illumina directors
Highly effective anti-obesity drugs like Wegovy are increasingly being paired with bariatric surgery, but the combination presents a pricey scenario for insurers.
Top of the morning to you. And a fine one it is. Lots of sunshine and clear blue skies are enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are bounding about the grounds and the short person has departed for a challenging apprenticeship. As for us, we are as busy as ever hunting and gathering items of interest. We trust you have your own busy agendas. So join us as we hoist the ever-present cup of stimulation — our choice today is gingerbread — and attack the fast-growing to-do list. We hope you have a smashing day and, of course, do stay in touch. Our settings are adjusted to accept postcards and telegrams. …
Activist investor Carl Icahn plans to oust directors at Illumina, laying the groundwork for a second board challenge at the gene-sequencing company months after shareholders elected one of his director candidates, Reuters writes. Icahn disclosed his plans without offering details in a letter to other shareholders less than 24 hours after Illumina said it will divest blood test maker Grail. In Monday’s letter, Icahn blamed the Grail acquisition, which has faced regulatory challenges since 2021, for a 75% drop in Illumina’s share price that he says wiped away $55 billion in value for shareholders. The stock was up more than 2% at $130.39 on Monday.
As more data emerge that obesity drugs like Wegovy can reduce complications from heart and kidney problems as well, scientists have been wondering whether these benefits are driven by weight loss alone or also by other mechanisms. A new study suggests that one possible contributor is the drugs’ ability to reduce inflammation independent of weight loss, STAT tells us. In mice experiments, scientists found that the treatments, known as GLP-1-based drugs, acted through the brain to reduce inflammation throughout the body. This was over a short period of time before the mice lost weight, according to the study, published Monday in Cell Metabolism.
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