GoKawiil
Tech News
Novo Nordisk tested blood from over 10,000 trial participants using proteomic clocks and found signs that its weight-loss drug slowed biological aging, including up to a 4-year shift in a clock measuring heart protein age. Eli Lilly ran a smaller study on tirzepatide using epigenetic clocks that track DNA changes, and also found molecular aging appeared to slow in patients taking the drug compared to placebo.
McDonald's is developing new menu options including grilled chicken, wraps and egg bites, alongside smaller portion sizes. The company points to roughly 30 million Americans now using GLP-1 weight-loss drugs as a factor shaping demand for its food offerings.
Researchers report that while most people on GLP-1 obesity drugs lose about a quarter of their body weight, 10-15% see minimal or no weight loss, according to endocrinologist Daniel Drucker of the University of Toronto. The Endocrine Society has called understanding this variation a research priority, citing early findings that biological sex, genetics and behavioral factors may all play a role, with women consistently losing more weight than men in trials and real-world data.
Thatch, a startup that lets employers give workers a fixed healthcare budget to shop individual insurance plans, raised $108 million at a $1 billion valuation. That figure is more than double its $410 million valuation from 17 months ago, driven by roughly sevenfold growth in annual recurring revenue. The company uses an employer-funded model, recently rebranded CHOICE, that lets employees pick from various health, dental and vision plans and keep unused funds for other medical costs.
Health benefits startup Thatch has raised $108 million in new funding at a $1 billion valuation, backed by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and The General Partnership. The round comes just 17 months after Thatch was valued at $410 million, with CEO Chris Ellis saying annual recurring revenue grew roughly sevenfold in that span.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used AI to analyze over 400,000 Reddit posts from nearly 70,000 users discussing GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound. The analysis, published in Nature Health, surfaced patient-reported symptoms—particularly menstrual changes and temperature issues like chills and hot flashes—that appear underrepresented in clinical trials and regulatory data. The team stresses this doesn't prove the drugs cause these effects, but flags them as signals worth further study.