#31: GST Cuts, Nail Drama and Tough Calls on Disability Law

• 🚽 The PEE-rfect plot twist! One bathroom break is all it takes for this urine test to detect prostate cancer with 91% accuracy, making painful biopsies look old-school. (TOI) 

• ⚡ Fastball, a 3-minute at-home brainwave test, calls out Alzheimer’s early. No quizzes, just brain signals unmasking a memory slip. (Independent)

• 🤖 U.S. deep-tech firm Soul Machines unveils an “empathetic” AI workforce, digital humans that see, listen and respond like real people. Handles healthcare tasks from patient support to trial onboarding. (MobiHealthNews)

• 🧠 Two killers, one brain, zero chance, or so it seemed. Kerala doctors pull off the world’s first victory over a dual brain infection, amoebic meningitis plus a deadly fungal attack, rewriting medical history. (ETHealth)

• 💊 Diabetic drug Metformin doesn’t just tame sugar, it also lowers copper and iron while boosting zinc, suggesting anti-inflammatory benefits beyond glucose control. (ETHealth)

• 🧒🏻 Swab it to nab it! A cheek swab in kids can spot arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, an inherited irregular heartbeat disorder, with UK researchers developing home kits. (TheGuardian)

• 💊 Trade winds shifting! With US tariffs rising, China is pushing weight-loss generics to Canada & Brazil, while India’s pharma zooms into Russia, Brazil & the Netherlands, eyeing a 20% growth. (Reuters) (ET)

• 💉 Zydus drops VaxiFlu™ in India! This trivalent flu warrior shields everyone over 6 months of age and is ready to battle the season’s sniffles and sneezes. (ET)

• 💫 Japanese pharma giant Daiichi Sankyo’s Baxdrostat is redefining blood pressure care. In trials, it cuts systolic BP by 15.7 mmHg, reshaping stubborn hypertension. (CNN)

• 🛡️ From Washington to the world, America is rolling out Gilead’s HIV-prevention shot, lenacapavir, in high-burden countries at cost. Aiming to reach 2M people by 2028. (Reuters)

🇮🇳 India

• 📢 Health win! GST scrapped on 33 life-saving drugs; gloves, kits and glucometers cut to 5%; health & term insurance now tax-free. Meanwhile, tobacco, pan masala and sugary drinks are now 40% to promote healthier choices. (ET) (ET) (ETHealth) (ETHealth)

• 👀 Not just grandma’s problem! Doctors in India are spotting gallstones in kids as young as 6, especially in cities, thanks to junk food and obesity. (BS)

• 🛑 India holds the line! A government panel has refused to add asthma, epilepsy, single-sided deafness, and six other conditions to the RPwD (Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Act. (ETHealth)

🌏️ Global

• 💅 Nail nightmare? Europe says goodbye to TPO, a chemical in gel polish that helps cure under UV light, over fertility concerns. Salons dump stock, brands race to reformulate, while the rest of the world keeps the glittery culprit alive. (Independent)

• ⏱️ One-minute AI stroke scans hit NHS hospitals across England, slashing treatment delays by an hour and nearly tripling recovery chances to 50%. (TheGuardian)

🇮🇳 India

• 💸 Bengaluru’s Reveal HealthTech raised $7.2M to scale its AI tools, BioCanvas and Prism AI, powering clinical data mapping and predictive healthcare insights. (TOI)

🌏️ Global

• 📈 India’s Zydus Wellness, through its UK arm Alidac, is acquiring British vitamins and supplements player Comfort Click, in a £239M deal- its first overseas acquisition. (VCCircle)

• 🧬 Novartis acquires global rights to biopharma firm, Arrowhead’s experimental RNA therapy for neuromuscular disorders, including Parkinson’s, in a deal worth up to $2B. (Reuters)

• 💰 US investment giant Bain Capital acquires California-based digital transformation firm UST’s healthcare arm in a billion-dollar swoop, fusing it into a health-tech powerhouse. (VCCircle)

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