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New Study Links COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination to Elevated Risk of Thyroid Eye Disease in Patients With Hyperthyroidism
A retrospective cohort study led by Dr. Linus Amarikwa, Department of Ophthalmology, Truhlsen Eye Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center and Dr. Andrea L. Kossler and colleagues at Stanford University, published in the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology, investigated whether individuals with pre-existing hyperthyroidism faced an elevated risk of developing thyroid eye disease (TED) following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. The hypothesis: vaccination may increase the likelihood of TED onset in this already high-risk group.
The research team utilized the TriNetX electronic health record network to analyze 373,909 patients with hyperthyroidism and no prior TED diagnosis. After applying propensity score matching to control for demographics and comorbidities, 69,378 patients were included in each comparison cohort: vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. Incidence rates of TED were also compared against patients receiving influenza and Tdap vaccines.
The primary outcome measured was the relative risk (RR) of developing TED post-COVID-19 vaccination. The study found: A 49% increased risk of TED among COVID-19 vaccinated individuals with hyperthyroidism compared to their unvaccinated counterparts (RR?=?1.49, 95% CI: 1.39–1.58).
2020 to 2024 Saw Drop in Flu Vaccine Uptake Among U.S. Adults
There was an overall decrease in influenza vaccine uptake among U.S. adults from 2020 to 2024, according to a study published online in PLOS Global Public Health.
Hannah Melchinger, from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues conducted two distinct, cross-sectional surveys assessing influenza vaccine uptake among U.S. adults.
The researchers found that from 2020 to 2024, overall flu vaccine uptake decreased, with more than 60% of U.S. adults surveyed in May 2020 indicating that they either received the influenza vaccine recently or intended to receive it in the coming months; this compared with 54% of U.S. adults surveyed in October 2024.
Significant declines were seen among demographic groups usually associated with higher vaccine uptake. People who were older than 35 years (11% decrease), male (13%), white (7%), non-Hispanic (5%), or more educated (16%) were significantly less likely to receive the influenza vaccine in 2024 versus 2022.
Drugmaker Refuses FDA’s Request to Pull Gene Therapy Tied to Patient Deaths
Sarepta Therapeutics will continue to ship its gene therapy delandistrogene moxeparvovec (Elevidys) to ambulant patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) request to halt distribution, the company stated late Friday. On Friday, the FDA said that agency leadership met with Sarepta and asked the company to voluntarily stop all shipments of delandistrogene moxeparvovec, but Sarepta refused.
The FDA also said it placed a clinical hold on Sarepta’s investigational gene therapy clinical trials for limb girdle muscular dystrophy following three deaths potentially related to Sarepta’s gene therapy products. The deaths involved acute liver failure in patients who received Sarepta gene therapy.
Two deaths occurred in boys with non-ambulant Duchenne who received delandistrogene moxeparvovec. The other death involved a 51-year-old non-ambulant man with limb girdle muscular dystrophy who was being treated in a phase I trial with SRP-9004, an investigational therapy that used the same AAVrh74 serotype as delandistrogene moxeparvovec.
GLP-1 Drugs Fail to Provide Key Long-Term Health Benefit, Study Shows
Popular GLP-1 drugs help many people drop tremendous amounts of weight, but the drugs fail to provide a key improvement in heart and lung function essential for long-term good health, University of Virginia experts warn in a new paper.
The researchers emphasize that weight loss associated with GLP-1 drugs has many clear health benefits for people with obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart failure, including improving blood-sugar control, short-term cardiorenal benefits and improvements in survival outcomes.
But doctors may need to consider recommending exercise programs or developing other approaches, such as nutrition supplements or complementary medications, to help GLP-1 patients get the full cardiorespiratory benefits of substantial weight loss over the long-run, the researchers say.
AstraZeneca to Invest $50 Billion in the U.S. As Pharma Tariffs Weigh
AstraZeneca on Monday said it plans to invest $50 billion in bolstering its U.S. manufacturing and research capabilities by 2030, becoming the latest pharmaceutical firm to ramp up its stateside spending in the wake of U.S. trade tariffs.
The Anglo-Swedish biotech company, which is headquartered in Cambridge, England, said the “cornerstone” of the commitment would be a new multi-billion dollar facility to produce its weight management and metabolic portfolio, including its oral GLP-1 obesity pill.
The facility, planned for the Commonwealth of Virginia, is set to be AstraZeneca’s largest single manufacturing investment in the world and will “leverage AI, automation and data analytics to optimize production,” the company said. The latest funding will also expand research and development and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas, and create “tens of thousands of jobs,” AstraZeneca added.
