We know GLP-1s are all the rage in the US, with 1 in 8 adults already taking the medications, according to KFF.

But the US isn’t the only country interested in treating diabetes and obesity. Worldwide, there’s an estimated 830 million people living with diabetes and 1 billion people living with obesity. Morgan Stanley Research reported that the global GLP-1 market could reach $190 billion by 2035, with China and Brazil in particular seeing possible “rapid expansion” in uptake.

Novo Nordisk’s patent on semaglutide expired in several large countries in March, clearing the way for cheaper generic alternatives that could make GLP-1s attainable for many more people globally. Canada’s FDA equivalent, Health Canada, has already approved two generic versions of Ozempic and is reviewing submissions for seven others, according to a May 1 press release.

In other words, GLP-1s are ready to go global.—MA, CM

Organ shortages are a massive problem for patients, with more than 103,000 people in the US awaiting an organ for transplant as of 2024, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Part of the problem is it can be hard to move organs around. Companies like Paragonix Technologies are building delivery tools for safer transport, but now, a more familiar name is getting involved in organ delivery: NASA.

You read that right. On April 21, the federal agency, fresh off its successful Artemis II moon flyby, announced that NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia and the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) would partner to research whether drones could safely and efficiently deliver organs needed for transplantation.

Together, the organizations will test drones models, flight planning, sensing technology, and safety design to help reduce delays in transportation and ideally improve care, according to a press release. They will also study how well drones carry sensitive biological materials, i.e., organs.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…an organ!—CM

Hospital safety watchdog the Leapfrog Group left 450 hospitals ungraded on May 6 in its most recent round of biannual hospital safety grades.

These hospitals escaped judgement because they didn’t participate in Leapfrog’s 2024 or 2025 hospital surveys, which it uses alongside federal data to dole out “A” through “F” grades for patient safety on up to 32 measures, such as handwashing or rates of dangerous objects left in patients’ bodies.

In past years, Leapfrog would still estimate grades for nonparticipating hospitals using outside data or, when outside data didn’t exist, using mean scores from similar hospitals.

In fall 2024, it switched to a method that assigned a score for missing measures based on the lowest score of a participating hospital. In April 2025, five South Florida hospitals owned by multinational health services chain Tenet Healthcare Corporation sued over the change. A judge ruled March 6 that Leapfrog’s methodology “unfairly penaliz[ed]” nonparticipating hospitals like those five with low scores. Leapfrog appealed the ruling and is working on a new methodology, CEO Leah Binder told us, but for now it has left the grades out.

Could this change inspire more hospitals to stop participating?—CC

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