Here is the medical news to watch for June 2-8, 2025

Here we report on an Xtalks webinar by Premier Research on “Innovating Obesity Treatments for Real-World Impact.”

The hot topics at the meeting this year were: Changes at FDA – from personnel to focus, priorities, accelerated review, clinical trials, and more; the impact of President Trump’s executive orders; artificial intelligence, drug compounding, and controlled substances.

In a 37-minute FDA podcast, Vinayak Prasad, MD, MPH, incoming Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, MPH, discussed a new evidence-based framework for Covid-19 vaccination policy, which they also detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In a preview of its annual meeting, the American Society of Clinical Oncology released 4 reports: one each on artificial intelligence, breast cancer, small cell lung cancer, and the safety of GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Summary: A registry study, presented at the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) meeting, raised questions about the safety of pulsed field ablation for atrial fibrillation – or did it? Here experts – including 2 authors – comment on the findings and what they actually mean. The bottom line: There is no emergency, but a larger registry might be a good idea. The key takeaways: PFA to stay the major ablation technology, large registry needed (HRS?), less over-ablation, and more research, studies, and new devices. The regulators may have the last word

In a special pre-AACR event, 17 pharmas and biotechs talked about their focus in oncology, their pipeline, and answered questions. Key takeaways included: More attention needs to be paid to what China is doing and to the role of artificial intelligence., Most big companies are open to collaborations with smaller companies with good science, and the key drug classes highlighted included, ADCs, bispecifics, CAR Ts, immunotherapies, menin inhibitors, protein degraders, radiopharmaceuticals, and T-cell engagers

The PainConnect meeting, sponsored by the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), offered an opportunity to learn more about the outlook for a newly approved non-opioid (Vertex's Journavx) and two new pain medications in development -- Tris Pharma's cebranopadol and Tonix Pharmaceuticals' TNX-102 SL.