Oil jumps on report US embassy in Iraq is preparing to evacuate amid threats

 Oil futures jumped more than 4% on Wednesday following a Reuters report saying that the US embassy in Iraq is preparing to partially evacuate amid security threats.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures gained more than 4.5% to settle at $68.15 per barrel. Brent crude (BZ=F), the international benchmark, also jumped 4% to settle at $69.77 per barrel.

The surge came after the report citing US and Iraqi sources said embassy employees in Baghdad were preparing for an ordered departure because of heightened risks in the area.

Crude rose earlier in the session on supply worries after President Trump indicated during a podcast that he is less confident that Washington will reach a nuclear deal with Iran, a top oil producer.

"I don't know. I did think so, and I'm getting ... less confident about it," Trump said.

Oil also gained after the US and China agreed to a framework and implementation plan to ease tariff and trade tensions following high-level talks in London.

President Trump signaled his approval, saying the deal was "done" pending sign-off from himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Oil has rallied over the past month, following a sharp sell-off in April.

Year to date, West Texas Intermediate is down more than 4%. Brent is down about 6% during the same period.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-jumps-4-on-report-us-embassy-in-iraq-is-preparing-to-evacuate-amid-threats-192627205.html

Social Media Firms Accountable for Posts, Brazil Judges Conclude

 

Brazil’s Supreme Court formed a majority in favor of further regulating social media companies, the latest effort by authorities to hold tech giants accountable for illegal content posted on their platforms.

Justice Gilmar Mendes on Wednesday evening became the sixth of the court’s 11 judges to vote that websites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X should be responsible for taking down fake news and vitriolic content even before legal orders to do so, and can face sanctions if they don’t.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-11/brazil-top-court-forms-majority-to-boost-social-media-oversight

AbbVie, Enanta Get OK for First and Only Treatment for People with Acute Hepatitis C Virus

 

• MAVYRET® (glecaprevir/pibrentasvir) is Now the Only Direct Acting Antiviral Therapy Approved to Treat Patients with Acute Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in Eight Weeks with a 96% Cure Rate1*†

• FDA Approval Now Allows Providers to Treat HCV Patients Immediately at Time of Diagnosis

• If Left Untreated, Patients with Acute HCV Could Progress to Chronic Disease, Including Cirrhosis or Liver Cancer2

• Glecaprevir, One of the Two Direct-Acting Antivirals in MAVYRET®, was Discovered by Enanta and Developed and Commercialized by AbbVie

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/enanta-pharmaceuticals-partner-abbvie-receives-163400919.html

New TEWL to Predict Diabetic Foot Ulcer Recurrence

 A new study proposes a subtle but potentially game-changing shift in how clinicians define wound healing in diabetes: not by what the eye sees, but by what the skin silently leaks.

The study, led by Chandan K. Sen, PhD, MS, director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine of the University of Pittsburgh, introduces a noninvasive tool that measures transepidermal water loss (TEWL) to assess whether a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) has truly healed or if it remains vulnerable beneath the surface.

The innovation lies in recognizing what Sen refers to as “invisible wounds” — ulcers that appear closed based on the US Food and Drug Administration’s definition (intact skin and no drainage for 2 weeks) but still suffer from impaired skin barrier function. That dysfunction, the study shows, can be measured with a handheld device that quantifies water vapor escaping from the skin.

Seeing Beyond the Surface

In the study, published in Diabetes Care, researchers used a simple, point-of-care evaporimeter to measure water loss from DFU sites that had achieved visual closure. Wounds with elevated TEWL values — meaning greater skin permeability — were significantly more likely to reopen than those with water loss similar to the surrounding healthy skin.

The implications are substantial. Whereas current standards rely almost entirely on visual inspection, this physiologic marker offers an objective, reproducible measure of skin barrier recovery. In essence, TEWL could help distinguish between “cosmetically healed” wounds and those that are functionally sound.

A Problem Hidden in Plain Sight

Roughly 31% of people with DFUs will eventually face amputation — and nearly half of those who do won’t survive beyond 5 years. A major contributor to this grim trajectory is ulcer recurrence, often occurring at the same site and shortly after supposed closure.

These findings echo previous calls in the literature to reframe wound healing as the beginning of remission rather than resolution. In fact, based on the best available data from our unit and others,  DFU recurrence is so common that it may be better conceptualized as a chronic condition with episodic flares — akin to cancer or heart failure — rather than an isolated event.

TEWL as a Biomarker for Remission

The TEWL approach supports a more nuanced understanding of wound healing — one that emphasizes barrier restoration, not just epidermal reepithelialization. Sen and his team suggest that TEWL be integrated as a complementary endpoint in both clinical care and regulatory definitions of healing.

In practical terms, the use of a TEWL measurement could help clinicians determine which patients may benefit from continued offloading, advanced wound care dressings, or antimicrobial protection, even after a wound appears to be healed.

Toward a More Durable Closure

As diabetic foot care increasingly shifts toward long-term management and prevention, the ability to identify wounds at risk for reulceration becomes essential. The TEWL metric fits seamlessly into that framework, offering a noninvasive, cost-effective, and scalable solution.

This aligns with broader trends in the field, including recent work that highlights the importance of postclosure surveillance, monitoring, and biomechanical offloading to maintain remission.

Conclusion

Presented with compelling clinical and physiological rationale, this new TEWL-based method could redefine what it means for a wound to be truly healed. Rather than signaling the end of care, visual closure might soon be seen as the beginning of a carefully monitored remission — guided, in part, by the invisible signal of water loss through the skin.

If validated across larger populations and settings, TEWL could become a staple in diabetic foot protocols, marking a small but vital evolution in our effort to reduce preventable amputations.

David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD is Distinguished Professor, Department of Surgery and Neurological Surgery; Director of Limb Preservation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Disclosure: David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/new-tewl-predict-diabetic-foot-ulcer-recurrence-2025a1000f3y

'Up to 44% of Dementia Cases Preventable'

 Maintaining optimal vascular health throughout late life can significantly lower the risk of developing dementia before age 80 years, new research showed. Investigators estimated the proportion of new dementia cases linked to modifiable vascular risk factors.

The results suggested that 22%-44% of dementia cases by age 80 years could be attributed to poor vascular health through age 74 years.

The findings highlighted the “potentially immense value of early detection of vascular risk factors and primordial prevention (eg, vis-à-vis promotion of physical activity and healthy body weight management) beginning in midlife,” wrote the study team, led by Jason Smith, PhD, with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

The study was published online on June 2 in JAMA Neurology.

Vascular Health Equals Brain Health

Hypertension, diabetes, and smoking are widely recognized modifiable vascular risk factors for dementia. While their roles have been studied individually, the cumulative impact of these risk factors across the lifespan — and how this varies by genetic background, race, and sex — has been less clear.

Smith and colleagues used data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study, with 33 years of follow-up, to assess the fraction of dementia attributable to hypertension, diabetes, and smoking measured at different life stages.

A total of 7731 participants were included in the analysis of risk factors measured at age 45-54 years (58% women, 71% White, 29% Black); 12,274 contributed data at age 55-64 years (55% women, 76% White, 24% Black); and 6787 contributed data at age 65-74 years (56% women, 80% White, 20% Black). Overall, a total of 2218 people developed dementia by their 80th birthday.

By age 80 years, the population attributable fraction of dementia attributable to at least one vascular risk factor measured at age 45-54 years was 22%; at 55-64 years, it was 26%, and at 65-74 years, it was 44%.

Only 2%-8% of dementia cases occurring after age 80 years were attributable to these vascular risk factors.

Subgroup differences emerged. For example, the attributable fractions for the vascular risk factors were higher in APOE-ε4 noncarriers aged 55 years or older (range, 33%-61%). “This reflects the fact that in populations with lower genetic Alzheimer risk, the extent of the relative contribution of vascular disease to dementia risk is greater,” the study team explained.

Attributable fractions for the vascular risk factors were also higher in Black individuals aged 45 years or older (range, 26%-53%) and women aged 55 years or older (range, 29%-51%).

Risk factor clusters such as hypertension plus diabetes and smoking plus diabetes significantly increased dementia risk, with hazard ratios ranging from 2.00 to 3.54, depending on age and risk factor combination. The importance of hypertension and diabetes increased with age, whereas the importance of smoking decreased with age.

“Given the contribution of vascular disease to dementia and the overlap in risk factors between CVD and dementia, interventions that address these underlying risk factors have the potential to reduce the risk of both outcomes,” the co-authors of a linked editorial said.

These results also suggest that “to be optimally effective, interventions to reduce dementia risk by addressing vascular risk factors may need to be individualized and targeted based on factors such as age, genetics, race, and sex,” Roch A. Nianogo, MD, PhD, with University of California, Los Angeles, and Deborah E. Barnes, PhD, MPH, with University of California, San Francisco, wrote.

The study had no commercial funding. Smith, Nianogo, and Barnes reported having no relevant disclosures.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/44-dementia-cases-preventable-2025a1000f70

Diet Drinks, Saccharin Tied to Increased Diabetes Risk

 Consuming higher amounts of diet drinks and/or saccharin was associated with an elevated risk of developing diabetes, while total artificial sweetener intake, sucralose, and aspartame showed no significant association, according to an analysis of data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.

30-Year Study

The current analysis, presented at NUTRITION 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, included 4654 adults (54.4% women, 50.1% White individuals) enrolled in the CARDIA study, with a mean age of 24.9 years at baseline in 1985-86.

Dietary intake was assessed by the CARDIA diet history at year 0, year 7, and year 20. The cumulative average intakes of artificial sweeteners, diet beverages, aspartame, and sucralose were calculated.

Diabetes was defined as a fasting glucose ≥ 126 mg/dL, oral glucose tolerance test 2-hour glucose ≥ 200 mg/dL, A1c ≥ 6.5%, or use of diabetes medications at follow-up visits.

Associations of incident diabetes across quintiles of artificial sweetener, diet beverage, aspartame, or sucralose intakes through year 30 were assessed with time-dependent multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression models.

The models were adjusted for age, sex, race, field center, education, energy intake, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol drinking, diet quality, and family history of diabetes.

Over a median follow-up of 30 years, 691 incident diabetes events occurred. Participants in the fifth quintile of diet beverage intake had a significantly higher risk of developing diabetes than those in the first quintile (hazard ratio [HR], 2.29).

Positive associations were also observed for intakes of saccharin (HR, 2.10).

Adjustment for waist circumference attenuated the associations slightly, but overall, higher intakes of diet beverages and saccharin were associated with an increased risk for incident diabetes.

More Work to Do

This study represents a “first pass,” as the team still has more work to do, including a mediation analysis, explained coauthor Lyn Steffen, PhD, professor of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis.

“These findings highlight the need to evaluate the long-term metabolic effect of artificial sweeteners on glucose metabolism,” the authors noted.

A previous CARDIA analysis by Steffen’s team suggested that long-term intakes of aspartame, saccharin, or diet soda were related to greater volumes of visceral, intermuscular, and subcutaneous adipose tissue.

“I recommend limiting the use of any sweetener,” Steffen told Medscape Medical News. “For beverages, I suggest unsweetened water, coffee, tea, milk, or small amount of 100% fruit juice — a small amount meaning limited calories, not 12- or 20-fluid-ounce containers.”

CARDIA is supported by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Steffen declared having no relevant competing interests.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/diet-drinks-saccharin-tied-increased-diabetes-risk-2025a1000f5o

FDA clears Nuvation lung cancer drug, setting up battle with Bristol Myers and Roche

 

• The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new oral medication for an uncommon kind of tumor, clearing Nuvation Bio’s Ibtrozi on Wednesday for certain people whose metastatic non-small cell lung cancer has a type of alteration in the gene ROS1.

• Ibtrozi was approved based on a pair of trials showing response rates of 90% and 85%, respectively, in patients who hadn’t previously received another tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Among those who had gotten another such therapy, the rates were 52% and 62% in those trials. Responses lasted as long as around 47 months in one study, so far, and about 30 months in the other.

• The FDA’s prescribing information includes warnings and precautions for an effect on heart rhythms, liver toxicity, lung inflammation and other potential health issues. According to Nuvation, 7% of patients discontinued therapy because of side effects. Company shares fell about 10% following the approval announcement.

Nuvation is a successor, of sorts, to Medivation, which developed the prostate cancer drug Xtandi and sold to Pfizer nearly a decade ago. Nuvation is run by David Hung, Medivation’s former CEO, and like its predecessor, has been focused on therapies for tough-to-treat cancers.

But Nuvation has faced setbacks since debuting on Wall Street by merging with a special purpose acquisition company five years ago. The company scrapped its initial drug program in 2022 and changed course two years later when a second prospect disappointed. Like many other biotechnology firms, it’s seen its stock price fall significantly during a sector-wide pullback, with shares losing more than three quarters of their value since 2020.

Still, a deal Nuvation cut last year to acquire AnHeart Therapeutics has given it a chance to rebound. A drug it got in the deal, known scientifically as taletrectinib, is designed for the roughly 2% of people whose non-small cell lung cancers are ROS1-positive. Since the acquisition, Nuvation has accumulated enough data to garner approvals, first in China and now the U.S., though the drug’s commercial prospects are unclear.

There are multiple similar drugs available for ROS1-positive lung cancers, among them Pfizer’s Xalkori, Roche’s Rozlytrek and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Augtyro. And though Roche and Bristol Myers acquired both their medicines in high-priced acquisitions, they haven’t yielded significant sales: Rozlytrek generated about 134 million Swiss francs in 2024, while Augtyro pulled in just $38 million. Investors “are generally skeptical” about the commercial opportunity “given a number of agents that have had limited success,” wrote Leerink Partners analyst Andrew Berens, in a January note to clients.

For its part, Nuvation believes Ibtrozi could become “a new standard for what targeted therapies can achieve” in ROS1-positive lung cancer, Hung said in a statement, noting the drug’s “high response rates with sustained durability.” Ibtrozi has also shown the ability to help people whose cancer has spread to the brain, a leading cause of disease progression, the company said.

In a research note on Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Leonid Timashev estimated peak yearly sales of the drug could reach nearly $640 million. Based on conversations with physicians, it “could be positioned well, and ahead of Augtyro,” he wrote, adding that Wednesday’s sell off in shares was “overdone on any potential launch and label optics concerns.”

“We’ll look to [Nuvation] to execute if David can beat Goliath,” wrote Jefferies analyst Michael Yee, in a separate note, adding that the Ibtrozi’s study results look “best-in-class.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/4f7be952-4b16-3a01-88be-1f44a343b177/fda-clears-nuvation-lung.html