01
What changed in healthcare regulation and policy this week?
Government decisions, new rules and policy shifts reported this week.
02
In April 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced voluntary agreements with food manufacturers to phase out nine petroleum-based synthetic dyes from food and medicine.
Read at kffhealthnews.org ↗03
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on August 28, 2026, that it has blocked over $1.6 billion in potentially fraudulent Medicare laboratory payments since the start of the second Trump administration.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗04
On August 27, 2026, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated Covid-19 vaccines from Moderna, Novavax-Sanofi, and Pfizer-BioNTech targeting the XFG variant.
Read at theguardian.com ↗05
On August 25, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the Libre Duo 10 Day Continuous Dual Glucose Ketone Monitoring System for use by individuals aged 2 and older with diabetes.
Read at fda.gov ↗06
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment over a 30-day period regarding potential changes to childhood vaccine recommendation classifications.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗07
The California Office of Health Care Affordability is considering a proposal to impose financial penalties on hospitals and healthcare providers that exceed state-mandated spending growth targets.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗08
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, expanded Health Savings Account (HSA) eligibility to include all Bronze and Catastrophic marketplace health plans starting January 1, 2026.
Read at thestreet.com ↗8 of 21 regulation and policy events are listed; the rest were ranked lower by importance and multi-source corroboration and are not shown.
What funding rounds and acquisitions happened in healthcare this week?
The week’s notable investments, financing rounds, acquisitions and strategic deals.
09
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) has been awarded $46 million in grant funding from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA).
Read at genengnews.com ↗10
Arintra, an AI-driven medical coding and revenue assurance platform, raised $25 million in a series B funding round led by Define Ventures.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗11
Digital physical therapy platform Sword Health is set to acquire mental health company Headspace in an all-cash transaction.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗12
McKesson has agreed to acquire Precision Medicine Group for $2.25 billion.
Read at fiercebiotech.com ↗13
Switchboard Health acquired Livara Health to integrate virtual musculoskeletal care into its referral and navigation platform.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗14
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced on August 24, 2026, that 138 grants totaling over $144 million have been awarded to healthcare providers across the state.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗15
The Oregon Health Authority approved the merger between nonprofit health systems MultiCare Health System and Samaritan Health Services on August 24, 2026.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗16
Nutrition care company Berry Street has merged with India-based AI health platform Healthify to create a combined metabolic health entity.
Read at fiercehealthcare.com ↗What products launched in healthcare this week?
Notable product launches, releases and platform updates from the week.
17
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted expedited approval to the drug daraxonrasib, marketed as Rasonque by Revolution Medicines, for treating metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Read at courthousenews.com ↗18
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Abbott for a new wearable sensor.
Read at fiercebiotech.com ↗19
On Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Rasonque, a new drug developed by RevMed for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Read at semafor.com ↗20
Labcorp has launched a new reflex testing solution designed to identify patients with hepatitis D, the most severe form of the virus.
Read at fiercebiotech.com ↗21
NHS England is launching a program to provide free home cervical cancer screening kits to women aged 30 to 65 who have missed their regular appointments.
Read at theguardian.com ↗22
NHS England is launching a home-based HPV self-testing program for approximately 4 million women who have missed previous cervical screening appointments.
Read at nhs.uk ↗23
The National Health Service in England has launched a program allowing nearly 4 million women who have missed their cervical screening to order home-testing kits for high-risk HPV.
Read at bbc.co.uk ↗24
Roche and Eli Lilly have received FDA clearance for a new Alzheimer's disease diagnostic blood test.
Read at fiercebiotech.com ↗8 of 15 product launches events are listed; the rest were ranked lower by importance and multi-source corroboration and are not shown.
What financial results were reported in healthcare this week?
Earnings, guidance and other financial results reported this week.
25
Anthropic and OpenAI are preparing for IPOs that could value each company at approximately $2 trillion.
Read at semafor.com ↗26
Cathie Wood, the chief of Ark Investment Management, sold $4 million worth of Tempus AI stock on August 25, 2026.
Read at thestreet.com ↗2 of 3 financial results events are listed; the rest were ranked lower by importance and multi-source corroboration and are not shown.
What court rulings and legal actions hit healthcare this week?
Court rulings, filings and legal actions reported this week.
27
A Mother Jones investigation revealed that at least 19 police agencies across ten US states have spent nearly $1 million of opioid settlement funds on Flock and Axon surveillance cameras.
Read at futurism.com ↗28
A woman in Queensland, Australia, gave birth to twins in November 2025 who have different sets of biological parents.
Read at theguardian.com ↗29
Lindsay Clancy is on trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the January 2023 murder of her three children.
Read at courthousenews.com ↗30
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has publicly criticized US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of undermining vaccine confidence.
Read at bloomberg.com ↗31
Morgan Geyser, who was sentenced for the 2014 stabbing of Payton Leutner, has filed her fifth petition for conditional release in the Waukesha County Circuit Court.
Read at courthousenews.com ↗32
On August 25, 2026, U.S. District Judge Maria A. Lanahan dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation against pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts and its subsidiary Accredo Health Group Inc. The court ruled that the claims were barred under Missouri law because they constituted claim splitting, as they arose from the same 2017 Pharmacy Provider Agreement and facts as a previous lawsuit dismissed in 2023. The litigation took place in a Missouri federal court regarding operations in Louisiana.
Read at courthousenews.com ↗33
On July 14, 2026, a coalition of grantees filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
Read at edweek.org ↗34
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into Epic Systems regarding its patient data access policies and employment agreements.
Read at medcitynews.com ↗8 of 14 courts and legal events are listed; the rest were ranked lower by importance and multi-source corroboration and are not shown.
What research was published in healthcare this week?
New research findings and studies published this week.
35
A report released in August 2026 by UPMC’s Center for Connected Medicine and KLAS Research reveals that less than half of U.S. hospitals have dedicated environments for testing AI tools before clinical deployment.
Read at medcitynews.com ↗36
A new eight-year study from the University of São Paulo involving 12,700 adults in Brazil found that daily consumption of artificial sweeteners is associated with a 62 percent faster rate of cognitive decline.
Read at fastcompany.com ↗37
Neuroscientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences conducted a study at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany in 2023.
Read at gizmodo.com ↗38
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed injectable 'myografts' that form self-contracting muscle structures under the skin.
Read at futurism.com ↗39
A clinical trial conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, compared the effects of ketogenic, Mediterranean, and low-fat diets on 42 participants with obesity, prediabetes, and fatty liver disease.
Read at sciencedaily.com ↗40
Research by psychotherapist Abi Booth indicates that vulnerable children in the English social care system are deliberately self-harming to avoid being discharged from therapeutic facilities upon turning 18.
Read at theguardian.com ↗41
Neurosurgeons at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London performed the world's first successful AI-assisted brain tumour removal in May 2026.
Read at theguardian.com ↗42
The Office for National Statistics reported that over 40,000 excess deaths in England were linked to extreme heat between 1988 and 2025.
Read at theguardian.com ↗8 of 37 research events are listed; the rest were ranked lower by importance and multi-source corroboration and are not shown.
What incidents and outages hit healthcare this week?
Incidents, outages and safety events reported this week.
43
The CDC reports 11,485 total patients in a multi-state Cyclospora parasite outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, with 495 hospitalizations and two deaths in Michigan.
Read at foodsafetynews.com ↗44
A fire at the Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, Pakistan, resulted in the deaths of 14 infants on August 27, 2026.
Read at aljazeera.com ↗45
The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two measles-related deaths in Lancaster County, marking the first such fatalities in the United States in 2026.
Read at wired.com ↗3 of 29 incidents and safety events are listed; the rest were ranked lower by importance and multi-source corroboration and are not shown.