People paying privately for weight-loss drug Mounjaro in the UK face a rise in the cost of the treatment after manufacturer Eli Lilly said it was increasing the list price of the drug by as much as 170%.It means the suggested price for a month’s supply of the highest dose of the drug will rise from £122 to £330, although the rise for lower doses will be smaller. More generally, retailers who sell the drug may be able to negotiate discounts to the list price, so it is possible the impact on consumers will be limited.The announcement does not affect the price the NHS pays, as the service has negotiated a heavily-discounted rate for those getting the drug on prescription.The weekly injection works by making you feel full so you eat less, and can help people lose 20% of their body weight.Currently there are thought to be around 1.5 million people on weight loss drugs in the UK with more than half of them on Mounjaro. Estimates suggest nine in 10 pay for these drugs privately, buying from online services and high street pharmacies.Eli Lilly said the drug had been sold in the UK at a price that was “significantly below” that charged in other European countries.It comes after US President Donald Trump complained about the high cost of drugs in the US.He has threatened the pharmaceutical industry with a “most favoured nation” drug pricing proposal to peg US prices to those abroad.Eli Lilly said it agreed with the objective expressed by President Trump that costs should be shared more fairly – although a “most favoured nation” approach was not the right answer.Research suggests prices in the US can be three times higher than in other rich nations.In a statement, Eli Lilly said: “The UK was one of the first countries where Lilly launched Mounjaro, and our priority was to bring it to patients as quickly as possible during a time of limited availability.”At launch, Lilly agreed to a UK list price that is significantly below the European average to prevent delays in NHS availability.”With changes in the environment and new clinical evidence supporting the value of Mounjaro, we are now aligning the list price more consistently to ensure fair global contributions to the cost of innovation.”Dr Leyla Hannbeck, head of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said she was “shocked and very disappointed” by the price rise.”This is a real blow to patients, at a time when more and more people worried about their weight are turning to jabs. “It is vital that patients who are already taking Mounjaro talk to their local pharmacy before they take any action.”Those patients considering weight-loss jabs should also not be put off as Mounjaro is not the only option – local pharmacies are best placed to offer vital advice about the range of treatments available.”She said it was important other weight loss drug manufacturers hold their nerve and their prices – alongside Mourjaro Novo Nordisk drug Wegovy is widely used in the UK.”The British market for weight-loss jabs will is only set to grow, but it will only achieve that growth if treatment remains affordable to the average patient.”

4 hours agoShareSaveJames GallagherShareSaveGetty ImagesArtificial intelligence has invented two new potential antibiotics that could kill drug-resistant gonorrhoea and MRSA, researchers have revealed.The drugs were designed atom-by-atom by the AI and killed the superbugs in laboratory and animal tests.The two compounds still need years of refinement and clinical trials before they could be prescribed.But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team behind it say AI could start a “second golden age” in antibiotic discovery.Antibiotics kill bacteria, but infections that resist treatment are now causing more than a million deaths a year.Overusing antibiotics has helped bacteria evolve to dodge the drugs’ effects, and there has been a shortage of new antibiotics for decades.Researchers have previously used AI to trawl through thousands of known chemicals in an attempt to identify ones with potential to become new antibiotics.Now, the MIT team have gone one step further by using generative AI to design antibiotics in the first place for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea and for potentially-deadly MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).Their study, published in the journal Cell, interrogated 36 million compounds including those that either do not exist or have not yet been discovered.Scientists trained the AI by giving it the chemical structure of known compounds alongside data on whether they slow the growth of different species of bacteria.The AI then learns how bacteria are affected by different molecular structures, built of atoms such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.Two approaches were then tried to design new antibiotics with AI. The first identified a promising starting point by searching through a library of millions of chemical fragments, eight to 19 atoms in size, and built from there. The second gave the AI free rein from the start.The design process also weeded out anything that looked too similar to current antibiotics. It also tried to ensure they were inventing medicines rather than soap and to filter out anything predicted to be toxic to humans.Scientists used AI to create antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA, a type of bacteria that lives harmlessly on the skin but can cause a serious infection if it enters the body.Once manufactured, the leading designs were tested on bacteria in the lab and on infected mice, resulting in two new potential drugs.MIT”We’re excited because we show that generative AI can be used to design completely new antibiotics,” Prof James Collins, from MIT, tells the BBC.”AI can enable us to come up with molecules, cheaply and quickly and in this way, expand our arsenal, and really give us a leg up in the battle of our wits against the genes of superbugs.”However, they are not ready for clinical trials and the drugs will require refinement – estimated to take another one to two year’s work – before the long process of testing them in people could begin.Dr Andrew Edwards, from the Fleming Initiative and Imperial College London, said the work was “very significant” with “enormous potential” because it “demonstrates a novel approach to identifying new antibiotics”.But he added: “While AI promises to dramatically improve drug discovery and development, we still need to do the hard yards when it comes to testing safety and efficacy.”That can be a long and expensive process with no guarantee that the experimental medicines will be prescribed to patients at the end.Some are calling for AI drug discovery more broadly to improve. Prof Collins says “we need better models” that move beyond how well the drugs perform in the laboratory to ones that are a better predictor of their effectiveness in the body.There is also an issue with how challenging the AI-designs are to manufacture. Of the top 80 gonorrhoea treatments designed in theory, only two were synthesised to create medicines.Prof Chris Dowson, at the University of Warwick, said the study was “cool” and showed AI was a “significant step forward as a tool for antibiotic discovery to mitigate against the emergence of resistance”.However, he explains, there is also an economic problem factoring into drug-resistant infections – “how do you make drugs that have no commercial value?”If a new antibiotic was invented, then ideally you would use it as little as possible to preserve its effectiveness, making it hard for anyone to turn a profit.

International charities warned that, left unchecked, the disease’s spread might exacerbate similar outbreaks across the African region for weeks or months to come.The cholera ward in Tawila, Sudan, was overflowing the first week of August, a grim sign of what the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said in a release on Thursday was “the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years.”International charities have warned that the spread of the disease, no longer contained within Sudan’s borders, might exacerbate similar outbreaks across the region.

The NHS waiting list in England has seen a small rise in the past month, with experts warning hospitals are not treating enough patients to keep up with demand.At the end of June, the list stood at 7.37 million, a rise of 10,000 on May.While it is still down on last year’s figure of 7.62 million, internal documents seen by the BBC, suggest one factor is patients being removed from the list without being treated. This can happen legitimately when patients pay for treatment privately or recover – but experts say it shows the NHS is struggling to keep up.The government said it was trying to ensure all patients who need care get it as soon as possible.The NHS has been encouraged to weed out patients who do not need to be on the waiting list, described as “validation” by officials, for a number of years. Financial incentives are paid for the number of patients taken off and can also include patients who have died.It can make services more efficient, as it means hospitals are not unnecessarily chasing up patients who no longer need treatment.Internal documents showed that, during March and April, the waiting list was brought down by 100,000 through weeding out patients. Without this the list would have increased.The Nuffield Trust think-tank said the true number being removed could be even higher.Its analysis showed an average of more than 200,000 removals a month over the last two years. The think-tank claimed that, on top of validation, computing errors could mean some patients are being automatically removed in error, creating an additional waiting list that does not show up in the figures.Dr Becks Fisher, from the Nuffield Trust, said: “It would be easy to assume that recent reductions in the waiting list are down to the NHS treating a bigger number of patients each month but our analysis shows that presenting progress in this way is a mirage.”The NHS is actually still treating fewer patients than are being referred.”She said while this waiting list “validation” exercise was “absolutely” the right thing to do in many cases, there needed to be greater transparency and understanding about just what is happening behind the scenes.The government said unreported removals were only a small factor in the progress being made on the waiting list, saying the NHS was still managing to treat an increasing number of patients.Screening the waiting list through the validation process was vital and ultimately improves productivity, they argue.A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our drive to clear the huge waiting list backlog we inherited includes making sure all patients are getting the right treatment as quickly as possible.”

The former diplomat Baroness Valerie Amos has been chosen to lead a rapid review of maternity care in England.In a letter to families who have been failed by poor maternity care, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said she “brings a wealth of experience through her senior leadership roles in national and international organisations”.The other members of the panel have not been named, amid significant concern from some families that those proposed are not independent of the NHS.There has been no announcement of which NHS Trusts will have their maternity services investigated by the review. The Health Secretary said up to 10 areas could be examined.The BBC has spent more than a decade speaking to bereaved and harmed families and gathering evidence of failing maternity services in a number of NHS Trusts, including: Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury & Telford, East Kent, Nottingham and Leeds.Mr Streeting announced his intention to conduct a review of maternity care in June and had hoped the work would be underway by now and completed by the end of December.In his letter, Mr Streeting told the families more work was needed on appointing the panel of experts who will support Baroness Amos, as well as on the terms of reference of the review. Some families have contacted Mr Streeting in recent weeks, expressing huge reservations about the people the Department of Health and Social Care had proposed to sit on the panel.Families in both Leeds and Sussex have repeatedly requested that the senior midwife Donna Ockenden lead their inquiries – no decision on that has been made either. Ms Ockenden is currently leading a review of maternity care in Nottingham, due to be completed next year, with around 2,500 cases being examined.Reports elsewhere have found poor maternity care has led to preventable deaths:

Cats with dementia have brain changes similar to those of people with Alzheimer’s disease, offering a valuable model for studying the condition in humans, a study says.
Scientists discovered a build-up of the toxic protein amyloid-beta in the brains of cats with the condition – one of the defining features of Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings offer a clearer picture of how amyloid-beta may lead to age-related brain dysfunction and memory loss in cats, experts say.
Many older cats develop dementia, leading to behavioral changes such as increased vocalization – or meowing – confusion and disrupted sleep – symptoms similar to those seen in people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh examined the brains of 25 cats of different ages after they had passed away, including those with signs of dementia.
Powerful microscopy images revealed a build-up of amyloid-beta within the synapses – connections between brain cells – of older cats and cats with dementia.
Synapses allow the flow of messages between brain cells and are vital to healthy brain function. Their loss strongly predicts reduced memory and thinking abilities in humans with Alzheimer’s disease.

The research team also found evidence that astrocytes and microglia – types of support cells in the brain – engulfed or ‘ate’ the affected synapses. This process, called synaptic pruning, is important during brain development but can contribute to synapse loss in dementia.
Experts say the findings will not only help to understand and manage dementia in cats but, given their similarities, could also contribute to the development of future treatments for people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists studying Alzheimer’s disease in the past have relied heavily on genetically modified rodent models. Rodents do not naturally develop dementia, and studying cats with dementia has the potential to advance knowledge and help develop treatments for both cats and people, experts say.
The study, funded by Wellcome and the UK Dementia Research Institute, is published in the journal European Journal of Neuroscience. The research team included scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and California, UK Dementia Research Institute and Scottish Brain Sciences.
Dr Robert McGeachan, study lead from the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: “Dementia is a devastating disease — whether it affects humans, cats, or dogs. Our findings highlight the striking similarities between feline dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in people. This opens the door to exploring whether promising new treatments for human Alzheimer’s disease could also help our aging pets. Because cats naturally develop these brain changes, they may also offer a more accurate model of the disease than traditional laboratory animals, ultimately benefiting both species and their caregivers.”
Professor Danièlle Gunn-Moore, Personal Chair of Feline Medicine at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: “Feline dementia is so distressing for the cat and for its person. It is by undertaking studies like this that we will understand how best to treat them. This will be wonderful for the cats, their owners, people with Alzheimer’s and their loved ones. Feline dementia is the perfect natural model for Alzheimer’s, everyone benefits.”

Researchers have created what could be called “skin in a syringe.” The gel containing live cells can be 3D printed into a skin transplant, as shown in a study conducted on mice. This technology may lead to new ways to treat burns and severe wounds. The study was led from the Center for Disaster Medicine and Traumatology and Linköping University in Sweden, and has been published in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
As long as we have a healthy skin, we do not give it much thought. However, if we get major wounds or other injuries, it becomes clear that the skin is the body’s protection from the outside world. Helping the body restore the skin barrier after a serious burn can therefore be a matter of life and death.
Large burns are often treated by transplanting a thin layer of the top part of the skin, the epidermis. This is basically composed of a single cell type. Transplanting only this part of the skin leads to severe scarring.
Under the epidermis there is a thicker and more advanced layer of skin called the dermis. It has blood vessels, nerves, hair follicles and other structures necessary for skin function and elasticity. However, transplanting also the dermis is rarely an option, as the procedure leaves a wound as large as the wound to be healed.
The trick is to create new skin that does not become scar tissue but a functioning dermis.
“The dermis is so complicated that we can’t grow it in a lab. We don’t even know what all its components are. That’s why we, and many others, think that we could possibly transplant the building blocks and then let the body make the dermis itself,” says Johan Junker, researcher at the Swedish Center for Disaster Medicine and Traumatology and docent in plastic surgery at Linköping University, who led the study published in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
The most common cell type in the dermis, the connective tissue cell or fibroblast, is easy to remove from the body and grow in a lab. The connective tissue cell also has the advantage of being able to develop into more specialized cell types depending on what is needed. The researchers behind the study provide a scaffold by having the cells grow on tiny, porous beads of gelatine, a substance similar to skin collagen. But a liquid containing these beads poured on a wound will not stay there.

The researchers’ solution to the problem is mixing the gelatine beads with a gel consisting of another body-specific substance, hyaluronic acid. When the beads and gel are mixed, they are connected using what is known as click chemistry. The result is a gel that, somewhat simplified, can be called skin in a syringe.
“The gel has a special feature that means that it becomes liquid when exposed to light pressure. You can use a syringe to apply it to a wound, for example, and once applied it becomes gel-like again. This also makes it possible to 3D print the gel with the cells in it,” says Daniel Aili, professor of molecular physics at Linköping University, who led the study together with Johan Junker.
In the current study, the researchers 3D-printed small pucks that were placed under the skin of mice. The results point to the potential of this technology to be used to grow the patient’s own cells from a minimal skin biopsy, which are then 3D-printed into a graft and applied to the wound.
“We see that the cells survive and it’s clear that they produce different substances that are needed to create new dermis. In addition, blood vessels are formed in the grafts, which is important for the tissue to survive in the body. We find this material very promising,” says Johan Junker.
Blood vessels are key to a variety of applications for engineered tissue-like materials. Scientists can grow cells in three-dimensional materials that can be used to build organoids, i.e. mini versions of organs. But there is a bottleneck as concerns these tissue models; they lack blood vessels to transport oxygen and nutrients to the cells. This means that there is a limit to how large the structures can get before the cells at the centre die from oxygen and nutrient deficiency.
The LiU researchers may be one step closer to solving the problem of blood vessel supply. In another article, also published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, the researchers describe a method for making threads from materials consisting of 98 per cent water, known as hydrogels.
“The hydrogel threads become quite elastic, so we can tie knots on them. We also show that they can be formed into mini-tubes, which we can pump fluid through or have blood vessel cells grow in,” says Daniel Aili.
The mini-tubes, or the perfusable channels as the researchers also call them, open up new possibilities for the development of blood vessels for e.g. organoids.
Lars Kölby, professor of plastic surgery at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, also participated in the project. The research has received funding from, among others, the Erling-Persson Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC), the Swedish Research Council and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

There has been a significant increase in the number of UK cases of a mosquito-borne virus that can cause sudden fever and joint pain and is normally only found in Africa and southern Asia.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says more than 70 cases of the chikungunya virus were reported in the first six months of this year, more than double than in the same period last year – all of them linked to travel.Chikungunya, while rarely fatal, can leave people experiencing joint pain for years.The UKHSA is warning travellers to take precautions against mosquito bites.In most cases, people recover fully within a couple of weeks, but for some, pain can persist for months or even years. In very rare cases it can be fatal. While the 73 infections seen in the UK in the first six months of this year is not a huge number, it is more than double the 27 cases over the same period last year. An outbreak of the virus is under way in the Indian Ocean region, and almost all of the infections were linked to travel in India, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Chikungunya is spread by two types of mosquito, neither of which are present in the UK, so there is no risk on onward infection. But Dr Philip Veal, Consultant in Public Health at UKHSA, says it is a warning to travellers to make sure they take precautions against mosquito bites.”Chikungunya can be a nasty disease and we’re seeing a worrying increase in cases among travellers returning to the UK. “It is essential to take precautions against mosquito bites when travelling. “Simple steps, such as using insect repellent, covering up your skin and sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets can greatly reduce the risk. “Before you travel, check the Travel Health Pro Website for the latest advice on your destination. “A chikungunya vaccine may also be considered for those travelling to higher-risk regions.”The same report also says the first ever UK cases of Oropouche virus, normally only found in Central and South America and the Caribbean, have also been detected in travellers returning from Brazil. This virus is predominantly spread by midge bites rather than mosquitos, with the main type of midge involved in transmission not found in Europe or the UK.Symptoms include high fever, chills, headache, joint pain and muscle aches.The UKHSA warns of a rise in Oropouche virus infections globally since 2024, and says pregnant travellers should take particular care following some concerns about the impact the virus can cause during pregnancy.

13 minutes agoShareSavePhilippa RoxbyHealth ReporterShareSaveGetty ImagesDrug treatment can help people newly diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) to reduce their risk of substance misuse, suicidal behaviour, transport accidents and criminality, a study suggests.These issues are linked to common ADHD symptoms such as acting impulsively and becoming easily distracted.Some 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide are thought to be affected by the disorder – and growing numbers are being diagnosed.The findings, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), confirm the wider potential benefits of drug treatment and could help patients decide whether to start medication, the researchers say.Having ADHD means the brain works differently to most other people’s. Symptoms can include difficulties concentrating and sitting still, having high energy levels and being impulsive. Despite the surge in people asking for help, the disorder is not becoming more common. Last year a BBC investigation found long waits for assessment in the UK.People are only diagnosed if the symptoms cause at least a moderate impact on their lives. The most commonly prescribed drugs, called stimulants, help manage everyday symptoms but there has been limited evidence of longer-term benefits for people’s behaviour, while well-publicised side-effects, such as headaches, loss of appetite and trouble sleeping, have sparked debate on their safety.This BMJ study was based on 148,500 people aged six to 64, with ADHD in Sweden. Some 57% started drug treatment and, of these, methylphenidate (also known as Ritalin), was prescribed, to 88%.The researchers, from Southampton University and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found taking ADHD medication was linked to reductions of first-time instances of: suicidal behaviour – 17%substance misuse – 15%transport accidents – 12%criminal behaviour – 13%When recurrent events were analysed, the researchers found ADHD medication was linked to reductions of: 15% for suicide attempts25% for substance misuses4% for accidental injuries16% for transport accidents25% for criminal behaviour “Oftentimes there is no information on what the risks are if you don’t treat ADHD,” said Prof Samuele Cortese, study author and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at University of Southampton.”Now we have evidence they [drugs] can reduce these risks.”This could be explained by medication reducing impulsive behaviour and lack of concentration, which might reduce the risk of accidents while driving and reduce aggressive behaviour which could lead to criminality.The researchers say the study was designed to be as robust as possible but cannot rule out the possibility the results were affected by factors such as people’s genes, lifestyles and the severity of their ADHD. Accessing the right medication for ADHD in many countries is not easy, with some drugs in short supply. In the UK waiting times to see specialists after diagnosis in order to access drugs can be several years.Prof Stuart Kinner, head of the Justice Health Group at Curtin University in Western Australia, said the research demonstrated “the diffuse benefits of ADHD diagnosis and treatment”. “Failure to diagnose and treat ADHD can lead to self-medication with alcohol or other drugs, poor mental health, injury, and incarceration,” he said. “Too many people with undiagnosed ADHD end up in the criminal justice system, where their condition may remain undiagnosed and untreated.”Ian Maidment, professor in clinical pharmacy at Aston University, said the study “adds to our understanding of the potential benefits of these drugs”.However, he said the research did not assess whether patients actually took their medication or the impact of different doses.

A single bout of either resistance or high intensity interval training could help in the cancer battle, new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has found.
ECU PhD student Mr Francesco Bettariga found that a single bout of exercise increased the levels of myokines, a protein produced by muscles which have anti-cancer effects, and which could reduce the proliferation of cancer growth by 20 to 30 per cent.
“Exercise has emerged as a therapeutic intervention in the management of cancer, and a large body of evidence exists that show the safety and effectiveness of exercise as medicine, either during or post cancer treatment,” Mr Bettariga said.
His research with survivors of breast cancer measured myokine levels before, immediately after and 30 minutes post a single bout of either resistance of high intensity interval training and found that both sets of exercise had a resultant increase in myokine levels.
While higher levels of myokines were expected in a healthy population, post a vigorous workout, Mr Bettariga investigated whether breast cancer survivors would see the same results, given the impact that cancer treatments and cancer itself often has on the body.
“The results from the study show that both types of exercise really work to produce these anti-cancer myokines in breast cancer survivors. The results from this study are excellent motivators to add exercise as standard care in the treatment of cancer,” Mr Bettariga said.
He added that the long-term implications of elevated myokine levels should be further investigated, particularly in relation to cancer recurrence.

Further research by Mr Bettariga investigated how changes in body composition, following consistent exercise, could impact inflammation, which plays a key role in breast cancer recurrence and mortality by promoting tumour progression.
Persistent inflammation not only promotes tumour progression by influencing cell proliferation, survival, invasiveness, and metastasis, but also inhibits immune function. Given that the cancer itself and the side-effects of treatments can elevate levels of inflammatory biomarkers, survivors of breast cancer are at increased risk of cancer progression, recurrence and mortality.
“Strategies are needed to reduce inflammation which may provide a less supportive environment for cancer progression, leading to a lower risk of recurrence and mortality in survivors of breast cancer,” Mr Bettariga said.
The new research found that by reducing fat mass and increasing lean mass, through consistent and persistent exercise, cancer survivors had a better chance at reducing inflammation.
“If we are able to improve body composition, we have a better chance of decreasing inflammation because we are improving lean mass and reducing fat mass, which is responsible for releasing anti and pro-inflammatory markers,” Mr Bettariga said.
Unfortunately, quick fixes to reduce fat mass would not have the same beneficial effects, Mt Bettariga stressed.
“You never want to reduce your weight without exercising, because you need to build or preserve muscle mass and produce these chemicals that you can’t do through just diet alone.”