Summary

The most impactful health news of the week included:

• Biomedicine: Changes in the geography of pharmaceutical innovation, favoring China, which now surpasses the USA.
• Global Health: Child mortality: millions of preventable deaths.
• International health policy: The politicization of the FDA erodes trust in this important institution with global influence.
• National health policy: The Ministry and the autonomous communities agree that an independent body will mediate with doctors to end the strike.
• Companies: Meta and Google held liable in the USA for harm to children’s mental health.

Biomedicine

• The geography of pharmaceutical innovation: USA and China in the new world order. China’s emergence as a powerhouse in drug development represents one of the most significant changes in recent times. The number of drug development programs is currently higher in China than in the USA.

Global Health

• Child mortality: millions of preventable deaths, while cuts in aid minimize progress, warns the United Nations. A report from this organization proves that 4.9 million children died before the age of 5 in 2024.
• The opportunity has arrived for the African Medicines Agency. Created in 2025 and currently under development, it already has a busy agenda.
• Meningitis caused more than 250,000 deaths in 2023, affecting African countries particularly, according to a study. Despite vaccination, the disease primarily affects poor countries, hindering progress toward global health goals.

International Health Policy

• The politicization of the FDA erodes trust. The role of the US FDA is to evaluate medicines from a safety and efficacy standpoint, and its decisions have a global impact. The changes implemented by the Trump Administration are eroding trust in this organization.
• The King’s Fund presents its report on public satisfaction with the NHS and social services in 2025. In that year, satisfaction scores improved for the NHS.
• The OECD presents its roadmap for the use of AI in health. The organization’s diagnosis is that the transformative potential of AI in health “is not being fully realized due to fragmented databases, a lack of coherence in policies and practices, and structural and governance barriers that hinder its scalability.”

National Health Policy (Spain)

• The Ministry and the autonomous communities agree that an independent body will mediate with doctors to end the strike. It was about time; however, it is not positive that one of the parties (the Ministry) is initially setting limits on what it is willing to offer, clearly excluding a specific statute for doctors.
• A decree is announced to determine the actual length of waiting lists. The Minister of Health, Mónica García, announced this Thursday that the Government will modify the royal decree regulating waiting lists to give the system “transparency and traceability.” Very importantly, in the past the Ministry of Health ignored waiting lists, considering it a problem for the regional governments, as if fulfilling a substantial part of the healthcare services portfolio were not also the Ministry’s responsibility.
• The Ministry prohibits cosmetic surgeries for doctors who are not specialists. The Council of Ministers approves a Royal Decree to guarantee that care is provided exclusively by personnel “with the appropriate qualifications and skills.”

Companies

• International
  • Meta and Google found liable in the USA for harm to children’s mental health caused by social media. The jury proposed fines of $3 billion, primarily against Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, for its actions on Instagram.
• National
  • Juan Abarca, acting individually, not as HM Hospitals, buys Redacción Médica and opens a new chapter for this healthcare digital publication, with the ambition of influencing the sector. A move that will undoubtedly have consequences, given the importance of the professional healthcare press.

Biomedicine

• The Geography of Pharmaceutical Innovation: USA and China in the New World Order. China’s emergence as a drug development powerhouse represents one of the most significant changes in recent times. The number of drug development programs is currently higher in China than in the USA (https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2026.2390)
• A combination of radiotherapy and experimental gene therapy shows a “potent antitumor effect” in animal models. In mouse studies, the approach developed by researchers at CIMA (a research center affiliated with the University of Navarra) has shown it to be safe and effective (https://www.elmundo.es/ciencia-y-salud/salud/2026/03/23/69c10ddfe4d4d8625a8b4570.html)

Global Health

• Child Mortality: Millions of preventable deaths, while aid cuts minimize progress, warns the United Nations. A United Nations report proves that 4.9 million children died before the age of 5 in 2024. (https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s540?nbd_source=adestra&nbd=8fbb67008476fb2494c9dc673c1a59b833545ade97e59cd7efd9c117443308b8&uaa_id=8fbb67008476fb2494c9dc673c1a59b833545ade97e59cd7efd9c117443308b8&utm_campaign=This%20week%20in%20The%20BMJ%20-%20Fortnightly%20manual%20alert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=adestra). To access the UN report: https://data.unicef.org/resources/levels-and-trends-in-child-mortality-2025/
• The opportunity has arrived for the African Medicines Agency. Established in 2025 and currently under development, it already has a busy agenda (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00601-X/fulltext)
• Meningitis caused more than 250,000 deaths in 2023, disproportionately affecting African countries, according to a study. Despite vaccination, the disease is hitting poor countries hardest, with progress toward global health goals slow (https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2026/03/28/la-meningite-a-fait-plus-de-250-000-morts-en-2023-touchant-particulierement-les-pays-africains-selon-une-etude_6674793_3244.html)
• Diabetes, often overlooked and without proper screening, is a new risk for Africa. Diabetes deaths are approaching those from infectious diseases (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/health/diabetes-africa-cameroon-type-5.html)
• The Iran-Contra conflict threatens MRI scanners: a third of the world’s liquid helium comes from Qatar. This material is essential for cooling the magnets used in MRI machines, which need to be refilled periodically (https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260326/guerra-iran-amenaza-resonancias-magneticas-tercio-helio-liquido-mundial-procede-qatar/1003744183688_0.html)
• Europe fails to detect one in five cases of tuberculosis. Europe continues to struggle with tuberculosis detection, failing to identify one in five cases, according to a report published Monday by the World Health Organization Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) (https://www.elmundo.es/ciencia-y-salud/salud/2026/03/23/69c11e41fc6c83a3088b4590.html)

International Health Policy

• USA
  • The politicization of the FDA erodes trust. The FDA’s role is to evaluate drugs from a safety and efficacy standpoint, and its decisions have a global impact. Changes under the Trump Administration are eroding trust in this organization (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00600-8/fulltext)
  • The Environmental Protection Agency is being sued by 24 states over changes to the criteria for regulating greenhouse gases. These states say that under the Trump Administration, the Agency is weakening the fight against these gases. (https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s556?nbd_source=adestra&nbd=8fbb67008476fb2494c9dc673c1a59b833545ade97e59cd7efd9c117443308b8&uaa_id=8fbb67008476fb2494c9dc673c1a59b833545ade97e59cd7efd9c117443308b8&utm_campaign=This%20week%20in%20The%20BMJ%20-%20Fortnightly%20manual%20alert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=adestra)
  • RFK Jr. is losing control of the CDC (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/03/cdc-director-hhs-kennedy-bhattacharya/686541/)
  • As RFK Jr. tries to regulate food companies, they resist (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/health/rfk-food-ingredients-fda.html)

• United Kingdom
  • The King’s Fund presents its report on public satisfaction with the NHS and social services in 2025. In that year, satisfaction results improved in the NHS (https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/reports/public-satisfaction-nhs-social-care-2025-bsa). Access the full document: https://assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/bd8551f32f/public_satisfaction_nhs_bsa2025_march2026.pdf

• France
  • The French healthcare system suffers from weaknesses in prevention policies (https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2026/03/26/le-systeme-de-sante-francais-souffre-de-la-faiblesse-des-politiques-de-prevention_6674309_3232.html)

• OECD
  • The OECD presents its roadmap for the use of AI in healthcare. The organization’s diagnosis is that the transformative potential of AI in healthcare “is not being fully realized due to fragmented databases, a lack of coherence in policies and practices, and structural and governance barriers that hinder its scalability.” This is not a technological problem, but rather an organizational, regulatory, and cultural one. (https://www.consalud.es/politica/como-mejorar-el-uso-de-la-inteligencia-artificial-en-los-sistemas-sanitarios-la-ocde-presenta-su-hoja-de-ruta.html). Access the original document: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/scaling-artificial-intelligence-in-health_a436e12d-en.html

National Health Policy

• Central Administration
  • A decree is announced to determine the actual length of waiting lists. The Minister of Health, Mónica García, announced this Thursday that the Government will modify the royal decree regulating waiting lists to give the system “transparency and traceability” (https://www.eldiario.es/sociedad/monica-garcia-anuncia-decreto-conocer-duracion-real-listas-espera-no-pasa-pacientes_1_13100879.html)
  • The Ministry will reduce bureaucratic delays in euthanasia procedures. It aims to approve a Good Practices Manual on Euthanasia by 2026 (https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260326/sanidad-reducira-plazos-burocraticos-eutanasia-reforzara-papel-enfermera-proceso/1003744183563_0.html)
  • The drug law is diluted amidst the political and health debate. The Minister of Health highlighted the importance of the initiative without specifying its current status, despite the fact that the Ministry was “finalizing the last review” in October of last year (https://elglobalfarma.com/politica/ley-medicamentos-diluye-debate-politico-sanitario/).

• Framework Statute
  • The Ministry and the autonomous communities agree that an independent body will mediate with the doctors to end the strike (https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260327/sanidad-ccaa-acuerdan-organismo-independiente-medie-medicos-poner-fin-huelga/1003744186788_0.html).
  • The Platform of Patient Organizations (POP) puts itself forward to mediate between the government and doctors. “We believe we can bring transparency to the negotiations,” explains Carina Escobar, president of the association.(https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260328/plataforma-pacientes-pop-postula-mediar-gobierno-medicos-buena-relacion/1003744187010_0.html)

• Violence against doctors
  • Violence against doctors reaches record levels in Spain. According to data from the Spanish Medical Association, there were 897 attacks on doctors in 2025. (https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s560?nbd_source=adestra&nbd=8fbb67008476fb2494c9dc673c1a59b833545ade97e59cd7efd9c117443308b8&uaa_id=8fbb67008476fb2494c9dc673c1a59b833545ade97e59cd7efd9c117443308b8&utm_campaign=This%20week%20in%20The%20BMJ%20-%20Fortnightly%20manual%20alert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=adestra)

• Cosmetic Surgery
  • The Ministry bans cosmetic surgeries to doctors who do not have the specialty. The Council of Ministers approves a Royal Decree to guarantee that care is provided exclusively by personnel “with the appropriate qualifications and skills” (https://elpais.com/sociedad/2026-03-24/sanidad-veta-las-cirugias-esteticas-a-los-medicos-que-no-tengan-la-especialidad.html)

• Palliative care
  • Spain, at the bottom of the European rankings in palliative care teams, with only 0.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Spain is at the bottom of the European rankings in palliative care and far from the two teams recommended by the European Association for Palliative Care, the association of professionals specializing in the field. (https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260327/espana-cola-europa-equipos-cuidados-paliativos-solo-habitantes/1003744185609_0.html)

• Research
  • The end of Next-Gen funding plunges Spanish R&D into a crisis due to a lack of funding. In August of this year, the Next Generation EU funds, which the EU promoted as a resilience mechanism for economic recovery after the pandemic, will expire. (https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260322/final-next-gen-arroja-id-espanola-crisis-falta-financiacion/1003744178176_0.html)

• Healthcare for immigrants
  • Vox drags the PP into the debate on restricting healthcare for immigrants. The PP advocates limiting… Emergency healthcare for undocumented immigrants, while far-right groups in Extremadura are demanding that nationals be given priority in all healthcare services (https://elpais.com/espana/2026-03-28/vox-arrastra-al-pp-al-debate-de-restringir-la-sanidad-a-los-inmigrantes.html)

Companies

• International
  • Ozempic, about to become generic for billions of people. In India, China, and other nations, Novo Nordisk is about to lose its patent (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/health/ozempic-wegovy-generic-india-china-canada.html)
  • Meta and Google held liable in the USA for harm to children’s mental health caused by social media. The jury proposed sanctions of $3 billion, primarily against Meta (https://www.ft.com/content/d3d80bd4-d2b1-4522-9752-4071df5b4c0a?syn-25a6b1a6=1)
  • Merck reaches a $5.7 billion agreement with a biotech company to boost its cancer drugs (https://www.ft.com/content/3f695210-8cc0-4736-837a-7961d80588d9?syn-25a6b1a6=1)
  • Gilead Sciences buys autoimmune company Ouro Medicines for $2.2 billion (https://www.ft.com/content/81528c31-c735-41b7-b042-81a811a76877?syn-25a6b1a6=1
  • The two mistakes that the president of Novo Nordisk will have to explain to shareholders (https://cincodias.elpais.com/companias/2026-03-26/los-dos-errores-que-el-presidente-de-novo-nordisk-tendra-que-explicar-ante-los-accionistas-enfadados.html)

• National News
  • Juan Abarca, acting individually, not as HM Hospitals, buys Redacción Médica and opens a new chapter for this healthcare digital publication (https://www.elconfidencialdigital.com/articulo/medios/presidente-hm-hospitales-compra-diario-online-redaccion-medica/202603271300001012367.html)
  • Grifols is considering an IPO in the United States for its biopharma division (https://www.larazon.es/economia/grifols-estudia-salida-bolsa-estados-unidos-division-biopharma_2026032469c2ffabe9252951fe88f7da.html)
  • Europe recommends Zepzeica (from Pharmamar) as maintenance therapy for small cell lung cancer (https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/observatorios/sanidad/20260327/europa-recomienda-zepzelca-pharmamar-terapia-mantenimiento-cancer-pulmon-celula-pequena/1003744186557_0.html)
  • The United States approves the first gene therapy drug “made in Spain” (https://www.abc.es/salud/estados-unidos-aprueba-primer-medicamento-terapia-genica-20260328153659-nt.html)

 

This post is also available in: Spanish