Category: Health

Thomas Fuller | Photo only | Getty Images

Pfizer On Monday, the company said it would seek regulatory approval for a Lyme disease vaccine candidate, even though the shot failed in a late-stage trial.

Pfizer said the vaccine missed the study’s statistical target because not enough people in the study had Lyme disease to rely on the results. Still, the company said the shot reduced the infection rate by more than 70% in people who received the vaccine compared to placebo. The company believes the effectiveness is strong enough to report to regulators.

“The greater than 70% efficacy shown in the VALOR study is extremely encouraging and provides confidence in the vaccine’s potential to protect against this disease, which can be debilitating,” Pfizer Chief Vaccines Officer Annaliesa Anderson said in a statement.

A Lyme disease vaccine is not expected to be a bestseller for Pfizer. Corporate partner Valneva estimates peak annual sales at $1 billion. Pfizer expects total sales of around $60 billion this year, with the Covid-19 vaccine accounting for more than $5 billion of that forecast.

But Pfizer had cited the Lyme disease vaccine results as one of its key catalysts this year, and they represented an opportunity to introduce the only human vaccine against Lyme disease.

Advancing a shot that technically leaves a clinical trial doomed to failure under an administration that has preached tighter control of vaccines could prove risky for Pfizer and could serve as a litmus test for vaccination policy in the United States

Lyme disease is a disease caused by bacteria that are most commonly transmitted to humans by ticks. It can cause arthritis, muscle weakness and pain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about half a million Americans are diagnosed or treated for Lyme disease each year.

Despite the spread of the disease, particularly in the Northeast, there is no vaccine for humans. A company that would later become GSK introduced a vaccine called LYMErix in 1998, but withdrew it just a few years later after public concerns about safety fueled demand. This experience hindered the development of Lyme vaccines for humans, although several companies now make them for dogs.

Pfizer and Valneva suffered their own setbacks. In 2023, the companies withdrew approximately half of the Phase 3 trial participants due to quality concerns with the third-party clinical trial site operator, Care Access. Initially around 18,000 people were involved in the study, but after the cuts there were ultimately around 9,400.

The companies’ vaccine targets the outer surface protein A of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. A vaccinated person produces antibodies that are passed on to a tick and prevent the bacteria from being transmitted from the tick to humans. The series includes three vaccinations in the first year and then a booster dose the following year.

The companies said they found no safety concerns with the trial.

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Products are always displayed on a shelf in a supermarket in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 29, 2024.

Given Ruvic | Reuters

Rising inflation and ever-changing tariff policies have led to higher prices on store shelves in recent years, straining consumers’ budgets.

An often overlooked example: menstrual products.

According to February data from Chicago-based market research firm Circana, the average price of menstrual products, including sanitary pads and tampons, has risen nearly 40% since 2020, from about $5.37 per unit to $7.43 per unit.

According to Circana, U.S. dollar sales of menstrual products increased nearly 30% over the same period.

At the same time, sales of menstrual products — which broadly include pads, tampons, pads and more — have declined about 6% since 2022 and are gradually declining each year, according to data from NielsenIQ.

The data analytics firm noted that average unit prices of items increased across the store, with U.S. dollar volume of consumer packaged goods increasing 2.7% overall year-to-date. These price increases are in line with rising inflation, with the latest consumer price index in February showing an annual increase of 2.4%.

The latest CPI data found that personal care inflation rose dramatically in the US, rising 22.1% in February compared to January 2020.

However, because menstrual products are necessary for a large portion of the population, these costs can harm consumers.

“I think we’re at a point where consumers in general are having to decide whether they can buy groceries for their family or recipes for their family. For some things that we typically define as necessities, people are looking for alternatives or going without,” said Sarah Broyd, partner at consulting firm Clarkston Consulting.

Broyd said the gap between higher prices and declining sales shows consumers may be out of necessity looking for alternatives.

Menstrual products aren’t just affected by inflation either. According to government data, the U.S. collected $115 million from tariffs on cotton menstrual products in 2025, compared to just $42 million in 2020.

According to the World Bank, in 2024 the United States imported the majority of its menstrual products from Canada, China and Mexico. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of varying amounts against all three countries last year.

These additional costs are in addition to the so-called “pink tax,” where some states impose a sales tax on menstrual products. According to 2025 Statista data, Tennessee, Mississippi and Indiana have the highest sales tax on menstrual products at 7%. Products that are considered “medical devices” are often exempt from sales tax.

“A subscription service for being a woman”

For 30-year-old Dafna Diamant, the rising prices for menstrual products are noticeable at the checkout and are putting a strain on her monthly expenses.

The New Yorker said she noticed her usual box of about 18 tampons had gone up to about $25, especially in the past year.

“It’s crazy and it just feels like sometimes as a woman you have to pay $50 every few months,” Diamant told CNBC. “And for some people it puts a strain on their income.”

Diamant said she’s particularly frustrated because it’s not a monthly expense she can forego. She often buys period brand products from retailers such as CVS And Walgreensyet she said she was still shocked at the sticker price.

“It still feels like a subscription service to be a woman,” Diamant told CNBC. “You have to pay every month to be fertile.”

Larger companies have also felt the effects. Procter & Gamblethe parent company of menstrual product brand Always, said in July it would raise prices on 25% of its personal care and household products due to a total annual tariff burden of $1 billion. According to the company, Always products are manufactured at locations in Maine, Utah and Canada.

P&G declined to comment for this story.

Kimberly Clarkthe maker of menstrual product brand Kotex, said on a conference call in April that the company incurred a total of $300 million in gross costs from tariffs, with more than half of that coming from tariffs against China. The company did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Broyd, the partner at Clarkston Consulting, said menstrual products face a “triple whammy” of rising raw material costs, inflation in energy and supply chains and cross-border tensions from tariffs.

“If you think about plastic and pulp and some of the key ingredients in feminine care products, they probably come largely from overseas and then are subject to a lot more tariffs,” Broyd said.

She added that these tariffs come on top of already alleged higher levies on other women’s products that are the subject of Congress’s Pink Tariffs Study Act, introduced by Democrats last year to determine whether the U.S. tariff system is “regressive” or exhibits a “gender bias.”

Broyd expects companies to continue to reevaluate their portfolios and potentially sell their feminine care segments to focus on higher-margin businesses as prices continue to soar. In November, Edgewell Personal Care sold its feminine care business to a Swedish company for $340 million.

“You’re seeing these more niche and startup brands popping up in stores. … That’s the biggest growth,” Broyd said. “People who have the opportunity to branch out and buy more organic products or products they trust will spend that price premium. But other consumers who don’t have the disposable income to do that will compromise and switch to private label or forego it.”

The rise of reusable items

Diamant said she and her friends are now trying period underwear instead of disposable products to cut down on expenses.

More and more people are trying out reusable period products, mainly because they are environmentally friendly and more cost-effective.

Large manufacturers often rely on brand loyalty for their products, but this could be compromised if consumers turn to alternatives.

“If you’re in feminine care, you’re going to use Kotex for 40 years. If you’re in Depend, you’re going to use Depend for 40 years, right?” That’s what Kimberly-Clark CEO Michael Hsu said on an earnings call in November. “The frequency is long-lasting. Consumers have a high spend, and so they want to have a lasting relationship with us.”

Saalt, a reusable menstrual product company that offers cups, discs and underwear, estimates that 16% to 20% of U.S. consumers have tried or used reusable menstrual products, with the majority being younger consumers.

“The affordability is huge,” CEO Cherie Hoeger told CNBC. “If you look at our product, a cup or disc can last 10 years, and our product is only in the $30 price range. … You can save up to $1,800 on the life of that cup or disc, and that’s on the low end.”

Saalt, which launched in 2018, had eight-figure sales in its third year of business, Hoeger said. The company declined to disclose details of its financials but said demand has increased year on year since its inception.

For Generation Z, according to Hoeger, price is the main reason for switching to reusable products.

“They usually have some affinity for sustainability and climate change, but that’s never a top priority,” Hoeger said.

The rise in reusable products may be contributing to the declining sales of single-use products for the period in recent years. This also lines up with recent studies indicating that tampons may contain lead or other harmful ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration investigated the presence of metals and determined there was no risk.

With this momentum, other companies such as Knix, MeLuna, Flex and others have entered the reusable products space and have secured growing market shares as consumers look for alternatives.

“Affordability is the sticking point; it’s the root problem,” Hoeger said. “Without the affordability of these period products, there are real economic consequences for women.”

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A mini burger, mini fries and mini beer, Clinton Hall’s “Teeny Weeny Mini Meal”, is pictured next to a regular-sized combo on Dec. 8, 2025 in New York City. Approximately one in eight American adults are currently taking drugs from the class of GLP-1 agonists that are now popular for weight loss, according to a November poll by the non-profit health policy tracker KFF. Some in the restaurant industry are taking note.

Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

The cost of GLP-1 drugs is falling, and pill versions are hitting the U.S. market. For restaurant chains and snacking giants, higher adoption of weight loss and diabetes treatments poses a threat to their sales — or an opportunity.

GLP-1 drugs slow digestion, suppress users’ appetites and increase satiety. For many restaurants and packaged food manufacturers, those reactions will likely mean weaker sales. Adults who use GLP-1s consume 21% fewer calories and spend nearly a third less on grocery bills on average, according to KPMG. JPMorgan estimates the growing use of the medications could wipe out $30 billion to $55 billion in annual sales for the food and beverage industry as soon as 2030.

About one in every eight U.S. adults is currently taking a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic or Zepbound, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll conducted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2. That number doesn’t include consumers who have discontinued their use of the drugs; 18% of respondents said that they have taken a GLP-1 medication at some point.

Those numbers are expected to keep climbing, especially after Novo Nordisk launched its Wegovy pill in January and Eli Lilly prepares to roll out its own oral drug this year. By 2030, more than 30 million Americans could be on a GLP-1 treatment, up from 10 million in 2026, based on J.P. Morgan estimates.

Michael Siluk | UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

But the shift also presents an opportunity for restaurants and food and beverage companies.

With new protein- and fiber-rich options, many businesses are hoping to win over GLP-1 consumers and mollify investors’ concerns about how the treatments will affect their bottom lines.

“Whether it is labeling as GLP-1 friendly, decreasing the serving size, emphasizing protein content, or even when you shift over to the beverage world, because hydration is certainly a concern, there are a number of players that are starting to react to this,” said Don K. Johnson, principal of strategy and execution for EY-Parthenon.

Skipping snacks and breakfast

About half of GLP-1 users report consuming fewer calories while taking the medications, according to UBS Evidence Lab. But the effects aren’t even across the industry, and “certain categories are more impacted than others,” Johnson said.

Snacking, once one of the fastest-growing grocery segments, has taken the biggest hit. About 70% of GLP-1 users who report consuming fewer calories said that they are snacking less, according to a survey conducted by EY-Parthenon last spring.

“I think it is about the specific type of snack, but I do think they’re also snacking less … Having said that, we do see that there is a shift to healthier foods, and that certainly will include healthier snacking,” Johnson said.

Think more yogurt, nuts or fruit, and fewer chips or pretzels.

Since GLP-1 drugs lead patients to lower their caloric intake, every calorie consumed means more. Protein intake is more important to prevent muscle loss. So, too, is fiber to support gut health and digestion. And staying hydrated helps mitigate some of the drugs’ side effects, like nausea and headaches.

The effects of eating less extend to restaurants. About 60% of those respondents to the EY-Parthenon survey said that they are dining out less frequently.

The shift could also hit full-service restaurants where diners order a drink with their meals. Roughly 45% of survey respondents who are eating and drinking less said that they are drinking less alcohol.

Surveys conducted by Bernstein indicate that the frequency of restaurant visits among GLP-1 users can fall by as much as 45%, depending on the category of food and the nature of the occasion, analyst Danilo Gargiulo of Bernstein wrote in a research note published on Tuesday.

The pullback in restaurant visits isn’t spread evenly across times of day, according to Dana Baggett, executive director of restaurant client strategy at RRD, which works with more than 200 restaurant brands.

Lunch, so far, hasn’t been impacted, she said. But breakfast has taken a hit, particularly from high-income GLP-1 users, who represent a bigger percentage of current patients, she said. In practice, that means fewer sugary coffee drinks and doughnuts, although options like Starbucks‘ protein cold foam could encourage those consumers to return.

A commercial for GLP-1 drugs during the Super Bowl LX broadcast on television screens at a bar in Los Angeles, California, US, on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.

Jill Connelly | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Dinner, especially at fast-food restaurants, has taken the brunt of the damage so far.

Dinner traffic has fallen 6% among consumers who have been taking the medication regularly, according to Baggett; in other words, overall restaurant sales during dinner hours have declined about 0.4% due to GLP-1 use, she said. But as the number of consumers who use the drug consistently grows, so too will the pressure on restaurant traffic.

And snacking isn’t confined to grocery store aisles. For limited-service restaurants, like McDonald’s or Taco Bell, snacking accounts for 12% of spending, according to Bank of America Global Research.

Even so, threats to those large restaurants chains may only be gradual, which gives them time to adapt.

“I think there shouldn’t be this panic out there in the marketplace, but this is a trend that’s not going away,” Baggett said. “This is an amazing opportunity for brands to start repositioning themselves and focusing on what consumers want: less sugar, higher protein and that focus on fiber.”

How Big Food is evolving

If recent earnings conference calls are any example, restaurant and food executives also think that it isn’t time to panic just yet. For some companies, the trend offers a chance to reach new customers through healthier options.

“I think there are more opportunities than threats, but there are both,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta told Wall Street analysts on the company’s earnings conference call in early February.

In recent months, Pepsi has released protein-packed Doritos, relaunched Gatorade and unveiled fiber-rich varieties of SunChips and Smartfood popcorn. Those moves are part of the company’s broader strategy to modernize its portfolio and boost sales by appealing to health-conscious consumers, but they also align with Laguarta’s assumption that GLP-1 medications will be adopted more broadly.

Domino’s Pizza CEO Russell Weiner sounded unshaken when he told analysts last month that the pizza chain hasn’t seen GLP-1 drugs affect its sales yet.

“Dinner, for us, is a sharing occasion, so perhaps that’s why we’re not seeing any impact, but we’re going to continue to watch it,” he said. “But if there needs to be menu innovation around that, we will do that.”

RRD’s Baggett told CNBC that she thinks portions and snack sizing will be key for restaurants to attract consumers who are on GLP-1 treatments.

When asked about the drugs on McDonald’s earnings conference call last month, CEO Chris Kempczinski touted the burger chain’s existing protein options. But he added that the preferences of GLP-1 users are also being considered as the chain creates new menu items.

“We’re also seeing changes around maybe less snacking, changes in some of the beverages that they drink, less sugary drinks, and so all of those things are factoring into some of what we’re out there experimenting with and testing with,” he said.

Other restaurant chains have already launched options that appeal to diners on GLP-1 drugs, even if the medications weren’t the key impetus. For example, Chipotle launched grab-and-go protein cups in December, aiming to cash in on the protein and snacking crazes as its restaurant sales struggled.

And Olive Garden, owned by Darden Restaurants, released a Lighter Portions menu last year, downsizing a handful of its classic entrees at a lower price. Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said that the chain introduced the new menu to give all of its customers more options.

“It just so happens to benefit the consumers that might want smaller portions that are on GLP-1 medications, and we have a lot of options like that in all of our menus,” Cardenas said on the company’s earnings conference call in December.

Marketing to GLP-1 users

Other companies have explicitly appealed to GLP-1 users, particularly when it comes to innovation.

In 2024, Nestle led the pack when it launched Virtual Pursuit, a frozen-food brand targeting GLP-1 users. While the packaging initially didn’t call out that it was “GLP-1 friendly,” the food company updated it later to include it prominently, boosting sales.

“It’s a big initiative for Nestle,” Nestle USA CEO Marty Thompson told CNBC at a media event earlier in March. “There will be those things that are designed for GLP-1, and there will be those things that will be sort of a companion to GLP-1, clearly calling out protein and fiber, but not necessarily designed portion-size wise or whatever for GLP-1.”

Nestle’s focus will extend beyond food, too. Thompson said that the company plans to expand into beverages and listed protein shakes as one potential way to appeal to GLP-1 customers.

Even food companies without much exposure to GLP-1 users are broadening their portfolios to reach them.

Close-up view of Dippin’ Dots ice cream cup in a person’s hand, Santa Cruz, California, June 22, 2024.

Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

For example, Dippin’ Dots and Icee owner J&J Snack Foods makes most of its sales in stadiums, theme parks and malls. Because of its “experiential” focus, CEO Dan Fachner told CNBC that he thinks that J&J is more insulated from the effect of GLP-1 drugs compared with its snacking peers.

“I still think that in most cases, even people on GLP-1 drugs will still use those occasions for snacking,” he said.

Even still, more than a year ago, Fachner presented employees with a challenge for the company’s grocery business, which accounts for 13.5% of annual sales.

“Take the core products — pretzels and churros and Icees and Dippin’ Dots and frozen novelties — tell me how we can make them more GLP-1 friendly as it continues to grow,” he said.

This year, J&J has a number of new products hitting the freezer aisle. Protein has been added to its soft pretzels, now available in a smaller portion size. And Luigi’s Italian Ice, traditionally sold in a cup, will come in a “mini pop size,” with a formula that includes more antioxidants or helps hydration, according to Fachner. If the new products succeed in grocery stores, then J&J plans to take them to the company’s food service customers, as well.

J&J’s new products also have the benefit of appealing to a wider audience than just consumers who are on GLP-1 medication. For example, Fachner expects the new Luigi’s mini pops will appeal to health-conscious moms as a snack for their kids.

Uptake could change strategies

For restaurants and food suppliers, current data on the eating and drinking habits of GLP-1 users are informing their efforts to appeal to those consumers. But that behavior can still fluctuate.

About 5% of users lapse in taking the medications, due to cost, side effects or hitting their weight goal. After quitting, they tend to maintain the same eating habits for a couple of months before eventually returning to a higher caloric intake.

“I think that we don’t spend enough time talking about the fact that there may be sort of a cycle of behaviors — people going on and off of the drugs — that will have sort of an interesting impact on manufacturers of food because there’s no ‘before’ and ‘after,'” EY’s Johnson said. “It’s a process.”

And a whole new group of consumers could soon be taking daily pill versions of GLP-1 medications. It’s too soon to tell if oral GLP-1 drugs will result in more consistent usage or higher quit rates and to know who exactly is trying the pill version over the injectable.

“I don’t have a crystal ball, but my guess is from our survey that the folks using the oral version of the drug will be a new set of people, because one of the barriers to trial was — as can be expected — a lot of people don’t like to take shots of injections,” Johnson said.

There is one prediction that is widely accepted: the pill version will mean much higher adoption of GLP-1 drugs.

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Last summer my sister Becky came to me with an idea.

She wanted my help building a platform at CNBC to shine a spotlight on the 30 million Americans living with a rare disease.

Becky hoped this would help give a voice to the millions of people often overlooked by the medical community…who suffer from illnesses most of us have never heard of.

Their vision was to create a space for this community – a space that would connect people to the incredible work already being done by rare disease advocacy groups, and build on that to reach CNBC’s unique audience – an audience with the power and influence to help create change for rare disease patients and their families.

I was intimidated by the challenge. Not just because of the amount of work I knew it would take to meet our start date, but also because of the level of empathy and responsibility I knew it would take to do it well. I wasn’t sure if I would be up to the task.

Luckily Becky and I weren’t alone.

Dozens of our colleagues have rallied behind CNBC Cures. They gave their time and talent to work on something that inspired everyone involved.

And thanks to their efforts, CNBC Cures found early success.

Since our launch on January 8th, we have aired well over a dozen stories focused on the rare disease community.

Over 20,000 subscribers have signed up for the CNBC Cures newsletter, making it one of the fastest-growing newsletters the network has ever launched.

We had thousands of listeners streaming episodes of The Path with Becky Quick, the Cures podcast series we launched in which Becky shares personal and emotional stories of people living with rare diseases.

We are also quite popular on social media: Cures videos have a combined one million views on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Our first annual CNBC Cures Summit, a live event where Warren Buffett shook hands with Boomer Esiason and Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer, sold out not long after registration opened. And the free livestream of the event had more than 8,000 views.

On Thursday we aired our hour-long documentary, CNBC Cures: Defying Rare Disease. In the special, Becky stepped out from behind the anchor desk to share her family’s private battle with rare diseases and talk about her daughter Kaylie’s SYNGAP-1 diagnosis. Through her stories and others like them, Becky revealed the harsh reality of patients caught between groundbreaking scientific advances and the persistent gaps in funding, access and support.

In the two months since Cures launched, we have spoken more consistently about the issues affecting the rare disease community than in the previous two years.

It didn’t feel forced and it wasn’t rushed. Because the message is important to people.

This speaks to the importance and relevance of these stories.

Through this process, I learned that almost everyone knows someone affected by a rare disease. And the issues we discuss – from regulatory reform to scientific innovation to access to medicines – are not just important to the rare disease community, but issues that matter to all of us.

They are the themes that will remain the driving force behind CNBC Cures, and the themes we will use to shape the stories we bring you from this incredible community.

But most importantly, we’ve heard a lot from you, our viewers and readers, over the last two months. We’ve received hundreds of emails…more than we could respond to – even though we’re trying.

You shared your stories with us and brought us into your lives. They have made us smarter, more relevant and confirmed that we are on the right track.

This is the justification we need to know that this is an area worth investing in as a network.

Thank you for your continued support and for your inspiration.

And keep watching CNBC Cures, because we’re just getting started.

For more information about CNBC Cures, visit CNBC.com/cures. To sign up for the newsletter, click here. Click here to watch the latest episode of The Path with Becky Quick.

Boxes of Ozempic and Wegovy from Novo Nordisk can be seen in a pharmacy.

Hollie Adams | Reuters

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

GLP-1 is available virtually everywhere—about one in eight adults in the U.S. takes one.

However, stopping these medications may come at a cost.

That’s according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine published Wednesday in BMJ Medicine.

The research found that even short gaps in treatment with a GLP-1 can increase the risk Heart attack, stroke and death in patients with type 2 diabetes, and the effects may not be completely reversible. Using electronic health records, researchers tracked more than 333,000 adults with diabetes over a three-year period, and the lion’s share of them had diabetes Novo Nordisk‘s diabetes injection Ozempic.

Here are the key data points:

• In patients who received GLP-1 for three years, cardiovascular risk fell by 18%.
• Stopping GLP-1 for just six months eliminated much of this protection and increased the risk by 4% compared to continued use.
• A two-year break from treatment increased this risk to 22% compared to long-term use.

GLP-1 does “much, much more than just weight loss,” said study author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, an epidemiologist from WashU Medicine, in an interview. “They reduce all those back problems, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation and provide real cardiovascular protection.”

“When people stop GLP-1, this cardiovascular protection ceases to exist, and also there is some asymmetry here,” he added. “It takes years to build cardiovascular protection and half as much to reverse it.”

Al-Aly called it a “metabolic whiplash” where any improvements “go in the wrong direction” once treatment ends.

The results are not a complete surprise.

GLP-1 are known for their cardiovascular benefits. In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with existing heart disease and obesity.

But the new study provides some of the first large-scale evidence of what happens to patients’ hearts when they stop these medications, particularly in diabetics.

The research also underscores an ongoing problem — high dropout rates due to difficulty accessing them and side effects such as nausea and vomiting — that the health system has not yet fully addressed. According to several studies, discontinuation rates for GLP-1 range from 36 to 81%.

Al-Aly said providers and patients considering GLP-1 therapy should understand that patients need to stay on treatment “for the long term,” not just a few months or even years.

He also noted the need to address the root causes of abortion, such as proactively controlling side effects. The access problem is likely to improve in the US, especially as major players want Eli Lilly are continuing efforts to increase obesity drug coverage among employers, and the federal Medicare program is preparing to cover weight-loss treatments for the first time.

Maintaining treatment for patients “should not be an afterthought,” he said. “People need to realize that quitting comes at a cost.”

Drugmakers are also working to solve the discontinuation problem, with hopes of developing next-generation obesity and diabetes treatments that offer comparable effectiveness with fewer unwanted side effects.

Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at a new email address: annika.constantino@versantmedia.com.

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Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, June 27, 2025.

Yuri Grips | Bloomberg | Getty Images

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with “early-stage breast cancer” but is remaining at work while undergoing treatment, President Donald Trump announced Monday.

Wiles, 68, “chose to take on this challenge IMMEDIATELY rather than wait,” Trump said in a Truth Social post revealing the diagnosis.

She has an “excellent” prognosis and will “spend virtually all of her time in the White House,” Trump said in the post.

“Her strength and commitment to continuing to do the job she loves and does so well during treatment tells you everything you need to know about her,” he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for additional information about Wiles.

She appeared alongside Trump at the White House on Monday afternoon during a board meeting of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The board, filled with Trump representatives including Wiles, had met to vote on plans to close the center for renovations starting July 6, The New York Times reported.

Trump said at the event that Wiles was dealing with a “minor issue” and reiterated that she would take care of it “immediately.”

Wiles said in an X post later Monday that she received her diagnosis last week and confirmed that she would continue to serve in the White House.

“Nearly one in eight women in the United States face this diagnosis. Every day, these women continue to care for their families, go to work, and serve their communities with strength and determination. I join their ranks now,” Wiles said in the post.

“I am grateful to have an excellent team of doctors who caught the cancer early and are guiding my treatment, and I am encouraged by a very good prognosis,” she said in her post.

Wiles led Trump’s victorious 2024 presidential campaign and wielded major influence in his second administration.

While Wiles is often seen alongside Trump at public events, he rarely speaks on camera or grants official interviews. However, in 2025, she participated in a series of interviews with Vanity Fair that revealed strikingly blunt assessments of Trump and his top aides.

She told the medium, among other things, that Trump had “the personality of an alcoholic” and that as president he committed legal “retaliation” against his enemies.

After the interviews were published in December, Trump said he stood by Wiles, and a number of senior administration officials jumped to her defense while attacking Vanity Fair. Wiles himself described the articles as a “hit piece”.

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When NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason was about to step onto the New York Jets practice field in 1993, shortly after being traded to the team, he was quickly picked up to answer an urgent call from his wife, Cheryl.

Her two-year-old son, Gunnar, was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Shortly thereafter, Gunnar was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, an inherited genetic disorder that causes mucus to build up and damage organs in the body, particularly the lungs, often leading to permanent lung damage. Symptoms of the disease can occur at any age, but at the time the diagnosis was generally viewed as a fatal childhood disease.

Recalling the day with CNBC’s Becky Quick at the CNBC Cures Summit on Tuesday, Esiason said the first call he made after speaking to his wife was to his father. His second call was to sportswriter Frank Deford.

In the 1988 NFL season, as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, Esiason won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award and attended an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., where Deford was the keynote speaker. While Deford was perhaps best known for his work in sports, he was also a staunch advocate in the fight against CF after his eight-year-old daughter Alex died from the disease.

“I had never heard of the disease and he was talking and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Esiason remembers. “I said [to Deford]’Can I help you? Can I help you raise money?’ So I went back to Cincinnati and became a fundraiser.”

Esiason said that when he spoke to Deford that day and told him about Gunnar’s diagnosis, he thought about giving up football to care for his son. However, Deford encouraged him to “use all of his powers to use every possible media to give a name and a face to this disease” to further the fight against CF, Esiason said.

“I looked at Sheryl and said, ‘No more. This is going to be a rocket and we’re going to take off,'” Esiason said.

CNBC’s Becky Quick interviews Gunnar and Boomer Esiason at the CNBC Cures Summit in New York City on March 3, 2026.

CNBC

This led to the creation of the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which serves as the leading patient advocacy group for the CF community and provides funds for a variety of causes including research grants, emergency assistance for affected families, and scholarships for students in the CF community pursuing higher education.

Esiason’s advocacy thrust Gunnar into the national spotlight, and months later the two were on the cover of Sports Illustrated with an article about the challenges faced by people with CF and the impact the Esiasons wanted to make.

But this battle had only just begun for Gunnar. Appearing alongside his father at the CNBC Cares Summit, he said that “caring for cystic fibrosis is extremely active and stressful,” and he described the hours he spent strapped to a nebulizer before going to school, having to wear a mechanical vest that cleared mucus from his lungs, eating through a feeding tube and the various other health challenges that came with his diagnosis.

“I was dealing with one pulmonary exacerbation after another,” Esiason said. He remembered coming home from college and talking to his doctor about running out of treatment options.

“At that point in my life, when I was 22 years old and graduating from college and everyone is moving to this city or that city and starting their career, I was back home, living with my parents, experiencing one health crisis after another,” he said. “I just remember feeling completely overwhelmed, like I needed to get out of this never-ending cycle of hell.”

This feeling led Gunnar to take part in a clinical trial for a drug called Trikafta in 2018, funded by the Boomer Esiason Foundation. Manufactured by Vertex PharmaceuticalsThe drug received expedited review from the FDA and was first approved for use in 2019.

“The opportunity felt like I could do something with my life even if the drug didn’t work,” he said. “Even if the trial failed, it was still an opportunity to contribute, and the most important takeaway from this time in my life is that patients, particularly in rare diseases, are a finite resource and the drug development industry cannot move forward without them.”

“When I was offered the opportunity to participate in the clinical trial, the answer was very quick: yes, not only to get out of the hell I was living in, but also to contribute to the broader CF community,” he said.

But miraculously, after taking the drug for just a few days, Gunnar said, “Everything was gone.”

“I woke up that morning, two or three days into a clinical trial. I remember waking up feeling rested for the first time in my life, and I was 27 years old,” he said. “I was always hoping for something, and I spent nights tied to my feeding tube, PICC lines, whatever, to the intravenous antibiotic, and within a few days it was just pure freedom.”

“Just won the Super Bowl.”

Boomer Esiason with his son Gunnar during Super Bowl Week on January 25, 1997 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Peter Brouillet | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images

The two Esiasons recalled attending a recreational hockey league game later that week, which they continued to do despite Gunnar’s health complications. Typically, Gunnar had to keep his time on the ice short due to his breathing difficulties and often coughed up phlegm when he returned from his shift.

But in this game, he extended those shifts, often on the ice for several minutes at a time, which Boomer Esiason said caused some complaints from his teammates but also raised a question in his mind.

“I’m sitting there and I don’t know what to say. He plays like he’s never played before, and after the game he drinks beer. We stopped to eat pizza, and because CF affects the pancreas and stomach, these kids don’t eat much. So he sits down and basically devours half a pizza, and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?'”

Esiason, who had believed his son was receiving a placebo in the clinical trial, said the moment Gunnar told him he was taking the drug and it was helping him, it was “like I had just won the Super Bowl.”

“Everything he went through in his life suddenly had a future,” he said.

In the years since, Gunnar, now 34, earned his MBA and began a career focused on novel health technologies. He also got married and now has two children – both through IVF. He and his wife used this experience to launch a new initiative for the foundation that supports CF families who want to have children using IVF.

In total, the foundation has raised nearly $200 million in the fight against cystic fibrosis and has played a key role in increasing the life expectancy of people diagnosed with the disease, many of whom now live well into their sixties and beyond—a remarkable shift for a disease that in the 1980s was once considered a disease that would keep children past elementary school age.

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to bring something like this to the public,” Boomer Esiason said. “But I can tell you, if I hadn’t done what we did, and if Gunnar hadn’t been involved, we wouldn’t be sitting here today, and a lot of that has to do with putting a face on something that people don’t know about, and that’s what Frank Deford did for me in 1989, and that’s what we’ve been trying to do since 1993.”

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Eli Lilly launched a new program Thursday to help more employers cover the cost of obesity medications in the U.S., addressing a major barrier to access for patients.

Lilly and her main rival, Novo Nordiskhave decided to reduce the cash prices of their popular obesity shots for those who want to pay entirely out of pocket. However, because of high costs, employer coverage for obesity medications remains inconsistent, leaving about half of people with commercial insurance unable to start or continue treatment, Lilly said in a news release. List prices for Lilly’s weight loss and diabetes treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro are over $1,000 per month.

According to a survey by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, nearly a fifth of companies with more than 200 employees, including 43% with 5,000 or more employees, said they will cover GLP-1 weight loss drugs as of October.

“I think we’ll learn in the coming months whether this is a solution that might allow some employers who have sat idly by to choose to provide obesity insurance for their employees,” Kevin Hern, senior vice president of Lilly Employer, said in an interview. He added that some employers may choose to add coverage in the coming months, while others may wait until 2027.

Eli Lilly’s new Employer Connect platform offers employers more flexibility when financing obesity treatment. The aim is to make it easier for employees to access medication at low out-of-pocket costs and at the same time limit costs for companies. Hern said The program addresses some of the “core tensions” for employers when it comes to obesity drug coverage, including transparency in drug pricing, flexibility in benefit design and the ability to choose between independent administrators.

Through the program, employers can pay a discounted net price of $449 per month for a new multi-dose form of Zepbound across all doses, Hern said. He added that the agreement does not provide for discounts and that the net price gives employers a clearer view of whether they can offer the drug.

Instead of relying on traditional benefit approaches, employers can use Lilly’s platform to connect with more than a dozen different third-party program administrators who help manage the benefits and costs of obesity treatment.

“Every employer is different. They all want to do things according to their individual needs and their workforce,” Hern said.

Employers can choose from more than 15 administrators to design benefits that fit their budget and employee needs. Some of the administrators may focus on managing employee obesity benefits, handling core functions such as enrollment, eligibility, claims, and more. Other administrators may specialize in comprehensive obesity treatment, providing patients with telemedicine, nutrition, and lifestyle support.

Lilly plans to expand the number of program administrators on the platform. The administrators already on the platform are GoodRx, Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co., Sesame, Teladoc Health, 9amHealth, Andel, Calibrate Health, Crux Health, eMed, FlyteHealth, Form Health, Goodpath, Ilant Health, Onsera Health, ReviveHealth, Salta Direct Primary Care, Transcarent and Waltz Health.

“Our goal was to create some sort of platform where these companies could compete on the value of their services to employers,” Hern said. All administrators offer the same drugs at the same price, so employers decide “who can provide me with the best service in administering this program, as I define it.”

Those with federal insurance could also see easier access to obesity medications: Under groundbreaking deals Lilly and Novo reached with President Donald Trump, Medicare will cover these drugs for the first time later this year.