It’s one of the cruelest ironies in health and medicine. Pediatric sarcomas are some of the rarest yet most aggressive forms of childhood cancer, and some of the hardest to cure. Whereas many adult cancers are now treatable with new therapeutic strategies, such as immunotherapies, pediatric sarcomas have not seen nearly as many advances. Survival rates have remained largely unchanged for decades.

Investigators at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University used an experimental drug to reverse the effects of systemic sclerosis, a serious autoimmune disease. The study, conducted in a laboratory, was published in JCI Insight. Systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma, is a chronic, life-threatening condition that scars the skin, lungs, heart and other organs.

The way cancer-causing proteins accumulate in tumours may influence how effectively a promising new generation of medicines can remove them, a study suggests. Researchers found that PROTAC (Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras) drugs were more effective at removing proteins that build up because they are not broken down properly than proteins that cancer cells continually produce in large amounts.

Sanofi and Cheplapharm, a European leader in well-established medicines, announced their intention to create a strategic partnership under which Cheplapharm would take over from Sanofi a selection of 20 mature medicines and three manufacturing sites worldwide. In return, Sanofi will receive a 26.4% equity stake in Cheplapharm, building on a collaboration that started in 2014.

Influenza continues to cause major illness each year in the United States, leading to more than 35,000 deaths annually. Children, older adults, pregnant individuals, people with weakened immune systems, and those with chronic conditions such as heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer are especially vulnerable. Vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent flu infection, but current vaccines do not always stop the virus from taking hold in the respiratory tract.