Younger consumers are more likely than older generations to put off care or treatment due to cost, according to a September 2025 Pymnts survey. Younger consumers are generally healthier than older adults, which may make their medical needs feel less urgent. Provider organizations must show Gen Z why staying on top of their health matters—and that care doesn’t have to be expensive in many instances.
Online healthcare companies are increasingly marketing GLP-1 prescriptions to people who aren't overweight or obese, according to a recent Bloomberg story. Federal regulators are starting to crack down on telehealth platforms for their compounded GLP-1 ads. So far, the FDA and FTC have targeted companies claiming their copycat weight loss drugs are the same as brand-name versions and that allegedly mislead consumers with misrepresented products and reviews. These actions could signal that the feds will next go after entities that advertise GLP-1s for unapproved uses, such as for cosmetic purposes for people whose BMI isn’t at least 27.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel voted to change its recommendation on when babies should receive their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Vaccine makers that develop products administered to children need to develop messaging that addresses the reasons parents give for bypassing routine childhood vaccines—namely, concerns over side effects, safety, and having to get too many shots, per KFF’s survey. Companies should work with state public health agencies—some of which are now issuing their own vaccine guidance to counter changing federal recommendations—to co-develop campaigns that clearly communicate both the benefits of vaccination and the risks of foregoing it.
AI isn’t replacing search—it’s moving earlier in the journey. OpenAI data shows only about 2% of ChatGPT prompts mention purchasable items, yet product suggestions appear in nearly one-third of prompts unrelated to shopping. For health and productivity queries, those rates jump above 40%. Meanwhile, AI minutes have quadrupled year over year while Google search usage remains slightly up, meaning AI is adding a new discovery layer, not cannibalizing intent-based search. For marketers, this creates a new upstream battleground where LLMs shape category awareness before comparison shopping begins. Brands must map the non-shopping conversations where their products naturally surface.
Marc Cuban Cost Plus Drug online pharmacy founder Mark Cuban wants the Trump administration to waive generic drug regulatory approval fees, the entrepreneur told Reuters. Cuban’s push into US manufacturing could help lower prices for some high-cost generic drugs by adding competition where little currently exists.
Medicare plans to pay health tech companies for wearables, apps, and telehealth technology that improves patient outcomes via a new pilot program aimed to begin in July 2026. The government’s willingness to pay for digital health solutions signals a meaningful shift toward making these tools part of standard clinical care. But health tech makers need to prove their tools improve patient outcomes to make it into the pilot program.
Most people who get their health coverage through the ACA marketplace anticipate being unable to afford rising premiums if enhanced tax credits lapse, with many expecting they’ll have to forgo insurance, per a just-released KFF survey. Unaffordable insurance—or no coverage at all—will force people into difficult choices, such as delaying care and treatment or cutting other essentials to pay for healthcare. With coverage gaps possible as soon as next month, insurers will need to help members navigate changing eligibility and costs to avoid losing them.
Pharma and biotech companies will soon be able to seek drug approvals with just one clinical trial instead of the standard two under upcoming policy changes from FDA chief Marty Makary, per STAT. While some drugmakers may benefit from the shift to a one-study standard by cutting both costs and timelines, vaccine manufacturers are facing pressure to produce more evidence of effectiveness.
Short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts contribute to poorer cognitive and mental health, or “brain rot”, among viewers, per an analysis by Griffith University researchers. Research has previously linked social media use to mental health risks, especially for adolescents and young adults, but the rapid spread of short-form video adds a newer and increasingly common point of exposure.
San Francisco’s city attorney sued 10 major foodmakers, including Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo, and Mondelez, over their production and marketing of ultraprocessed foods. This marks the first governmental lawsuit over ultraprocessed products, escalating the regulatory and public pressure food companies face to cut additives and make their assortments healthier. Foodmakers will need to change their manufacturing and marketing practices as public opinion turns against ultraprocessed foods and governments—both local and federal—begin to exert more pressure.
Among patients newly prescribed GLP-1s for obesity, 90% either never start therapy or discontinue within a year. Novo and Lilly are using their direct-to-consumer online pharmacies to improve adherence, giving them clearer insight into why patients don’t fill or refill prescriptions to offer targeted support. Beyond that, drugmakers should work with their telehealth partners and pharmacies to give patients resources on managing side effects, navigating insurance issues, and understanding why maintenance dosing remains important after achieving some weight loss.
The FDA is introducing agentic AI to help its drug reviewers, investigators, and scientists carry out more complex tasks and develop AI-driven workflows. Its move into agentic AI signals that AI-driven review is becoming a regulatory norm.
The UK will increase the price it pays for new medicines in exchange for evading tariffs on pharmaceutical exports to the US, under a trade agreement reached between the two governments on Monday. The deal is further affirmation that Trump will use tariff threats as a bargaining tool to advance what he views as larger measures against the pharma industry: increasing domestic drug production, reducing the cash-pay prices of some expensive medicines, and bringing US drug costs closer in line with those in other affluent countries.
Health insurance outranks all other factors when people consider their next career move, according to a recent survey from Talker Research and Oscar Health. While employers are unlikely to take on more healthcare costs soon due to their own financial strain, they must prioritize worker retention and use open enrollment for transparent communication on cost increases and plan adjustments
Eli Lilly is dropping the price of its weight loss drug Zepbound for cash-pay customers, following rival Novo Nordisk’s price cut less than two weeks ago. Lilly and Novo’s newly lowered D2C prices will help some cash-pay consumers, but the affordability gap is a major barrier to broader adoption.
The Trump administration announced lower Medicare prices for 15 prescription drugs via the Medicare drug price negotiation program. The new prices will take effect starting January 1, 2027. The biggest hit will fall on pharma companies with drugs selected in both rounds of Medicare negotiations. Revenue impacts will vary depending on each product’s time on the market and how far the negotiated price falls below prior net sales after rebates and discounts. For the government, savings on these drugs will be significant, but broader program savings won’t materialize until far more than 25 drugs see price cuts.
OpenAI has refuted legal claims that ChatGPT is at fault for a teenager’s recent suicide. Scrutiny of AI tools being used for emotional and therapeutic support will only intensify. Both general-purpose platforms and specialized healthcare AI tools should proactively take action to impose age restrictions, automatically end sessions at the first sign of emotional distress, and clearly direct users to mental health resources when appropriate.
Novo Nordisk has applied for approval of a higher-dose version of its weight loss drug Wegovy using a special FDA review pathway for a faster decision. Novo’s move to introduce a higher-dose Wegovy shifts competitive expectations in the weight loss category in terms of speed and effectiveness, with over 20% weight loss becoming the new benchmark for success.
Two-thirds (65%) of pharma marketers are wary of AI use for creating regulatory filings, according to a new Klick Health and Momentum Events survey. While AI-assisted review is likely to become a standard part of regulatory workflows for both industry submissions and agency evaluations, human oversight will remain important.
Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 drug semaglutide failed to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in new study results, dashing hopes that GLP-1s might one day be approved to treat the condition. Novo’s Alzheimer’s results underscore the boundary of how far GLP-1s can stretch beyond metabolic diseases.