WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — In this expert perspective from Retina 2026, Murtaza K. Adam, MD, of Colorado Retina Associates, discusses real-world data coming in 2026.
He said he is excited about data on Eylea HD (aflibercept 8 mg, Regeneron).
Adam said there is already “robust” real-world data on Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa, Genentech) in neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, and “we are looking forward to seeing how the second-generation molecules altogether fare and compare to one another.”

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, has been picked to also serve as acting director of the CDC, a White House official confirmed to Healio.
Bhattacharya will oversee both agencies until a permanent CDC director is nominated and confirmed, the official said.
Jim O’Neill, who served as acting CDC director for 5-plus months until last Friday, will be nominated to be the next head of the National Science Foundation, according to the official.
“Both are eminently qualified for these positions, and the White House has confidence in them to deliver on the President’s agenda,” the official told

Primary care use among patients receiving in-center hemodialysis was associated with lower mortality rates but more hospitalizations and ED visits, according to study data published in Kidney Medicine.
Access barriers, including limited hours and transportation issues, contribute to lower rates of primary care use among patients receiving hemodialysis compared with the general population, according to Bernard Jaar, MD, clinical director of the division of nephrology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and colleagues. However, increasing primary care utilization among the dialysis population

Combination ixekizumab plus tirzepatide outperformed ixekizumab monotherapy for the treatment of both psoriasis and overweight or obesity, according to topline results announced by Eli Lilly.
TOGETHER-PsO — a 52-week, phase 3b, randomized, double-blind, open-label study — assessed the efficacy and safety of combination therapy with ixekizumab (Taltz, Eli Lilly), an IL-17a inhibitor, and tirzepatide (Zepbound, Eli Lilly), a dual GLP-1/glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide agonist vs. ixekizumab alone. The cohort included 274 adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis and overweight

Last month, HHS released the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which garnered both applause and backlash from the medical community.
The latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) feature a new food pyramid that emphasizes more consumption of protein, whole foods, healthy fats, and fruits and vegetables. They also advise limiting ultraprocessed foods (UPFs), added sugars, alcohol and artificial additives.
Healio spoke with Talia Hauser, RD, LDN, a telehealth-registered dietitian at HUSK Wellness, to learn how the DGAs may be put into practice, what she would change about them and

Editor’s note: This is a developing news story. Please check back soon for updates.
The FDA approved an expanded age indication for the EVO/EVO+ Visian Implantable Collamer Lens in the U.S.
Previously approved for patients between the ages of 21 to 45 years, the EVO ICL is now available for use in patients between the ages of 21 to 60 years, according to a press release from STAAR Surgical.
The EVO ICL is indicated in phakic eyes to correct/reduce myopia in those with spherical equivalent ranging from –3 D to –20 D at the spectacle plane, myopic astigmatism correction in those with spherical

SAN DIEGO — The Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity Test from Octave Bioscience was sensitive and useful for monitoring the stability of MS and responses to treatment, according to posters presented at ACTRIMS Forum 2026.
The validated, multi-protein, blood-based MSDA Test uses 18 proteins, sex and age to generate a disease activity (DA) score that ranges from 1 to 10, wrote Ferhan Qureshi, senior vice president of biomarker R&D at Octave Bioscience, and colleagues.
“We’re not diagnosing patients with MS,” Qureshi told Healio. “It’s a tool that’s used to quantitatively measure MS disease

The cardiology landscape is rapidly evolving. Novel risk factors and new tools are reshaping CV risk assessment and management.
Healio | Cardiology Today asked cardiologists: What are the most important advances or issues in cardiology heading into 2026?
One area of interest is the CV outcomes data for pelacarsen (Novartis/Ionis), a novel lipoprotein(a)-lowering drug, expected to be presented later this year. Other topics cardiologists are watching include soon to be reported research on CV outcomes related to anti-inflammatory therapies, FDA approval of an aldosterone synthase inhibitor for

Women who were prescribed menopausal hormone therapy had modestly reduced risk for all-cause mortality vs. those who did not receive a prescription, according to data published in The BMJ.
“Current guidelines from the Endocrine Society recommend menopausal HT for women who have recently begun menopause who have moderate to severe symptoms and no contraindications,” Anders Pretzmann Mikkelsen, MD, PhD, researcher in the department of gynecology and obstetrics at Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev and Zealand University Hospital Holbaek in Denmark, and colleagues wrote. “Our findings support

The median predicted survival age of a patient with cystic fibrosis in 2020 to 2024 was 65 years, a 19-year increase from 2015 to 2019, according to data from the 2024 Cystic Fibrosis National Indicator Report.
Additionally, the report found a drop in the percentage of babies aged older than 28 days at the first instance of testing/cystic fibrosis (CF) center visit.
“We were gratified to see that fewer babies are being diagnosed within a timeframe that is associated with worse nutritional and respiratory outcomes (Martiniano et al, Journal of Pediatrics) and that projected life expectancy for