News &amp; Updates

The novel partial μ receptor agonist and full κ receptor antagonist ORP-101 has failed to demonstrate superiority to placebo in the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with diarrhoea (IBS-D) in a phase II randomized controlled trial.

ORP-101 for IBS with diarrhoea misses mark in phase II trial

Tavapadon shows promise as adjunct therapy for Parkinson’s Disease in phase III trial

08 Apr 2026 by

Tavapadon, a novel, investigational, selective D1/D5 agonist with once-daily oral dosing, provides clinically meaningful and sustained benefit adjunctive to levodopa and has a favourable safety profile in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experiencing off fluctuations, according to findings of the TEMPO-3 trial.

Tavapadon shows promise as adjunct therapy for Parkinson’s Disease in phase III trial

Increased ischaemic stroke cases during Ramadan

08 Apr 2026 by

A study conducted in southern Thailand has found a higher incidence of non-recurrent ischaemic stroke among Muslims during the Ramadan period (when Muslims observe a ‘fasting window’ from sunrise to sunset) compared with the rest of the year.

Increased ischaemic stroke cases during Ramadan

$Weight maintenance after smoking cessation lowers fracture risk in men with T2DM$

Weight maintenance after smoking cessation lowers fracture risk in men with T2DM

Quitting smoking does not appear to contribute to a decrease in fracture risk in male patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but maintaining weight following cessation may help, reveals a study. Moreover, weight loss after quitting tends to increase such risk.

Weight maintenance after smoking cessation lowers fracture risk in men with T2DM

GLP-1 RAs may deter substance addiction, SUD-related adverse outcomes

Initiation of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) results in a lower risk of developing various incident substance use disorders (SUDs), suggests a study involving US veterans with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Its use also protects against adverse clinical outcome in people with pre-existing SUDs.

GLP-1 RAs may deter substance addiction, SUD-related adverse outcomes

Patient tone influences AI-generated clinical advice in E-medicine

A recent study has shown how large language models (LLMs) treat patient tone as clinical input, leading to adjustments in triage, follow-up, prescribing, and sick-leave decisions despite identical symptoms.

Patient tone influences AI-generated clinical advice in E-medicine

Almonds an acne buster?

A study presented at AAD 2026 adds to growing evidence showing that almonds can combat acne.

Almonds an acne buster?

07 Apr 2026

CardiOmicScore: AI tool for personalized long-term CV risk prediction with enhanced accuracy

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed an innovative AI-based tool that can predict, with enhanced accuracy, the risk of six most common cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) up to 15 years prior to disease onset when combined with clinical data.

CardiOmicScore: AI tool for personalized long-term CV risk prediction with enhanced accuracy

Safe genome-edited, immune-evasive human stem cells promising for therapeutic use

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health in Toronto, Canada, have genetically engineered human stem cells that can ‘cloak’ themselves to evade immune rejection while carrying a built-in kill-switch to prevent tumour formation, supporting potential application of safe, off-the-shelf therapeutic cells generated in vitro for transplantation in stem cell–based regenerative therapies.

Safe genome-edited, immune-evasive human stem cells promising for therapeutic use