Tag - medicine

 
Menu
Search
 
July 12, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

MEDICINE

Viranchi Shah, spokesperson for India's Drug Manufacturers' Association, the largest industry body of Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers, speaks during an interview in Ahmedabad, India.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2026
Indian pharma fuels Africa’s ‘zombie drug’ and opioid crisis
Customs records show millions of dollars’ worth of the high-strength synthetic opioid being shipped from India every month to Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana.
Members of the M23 rebel group guard a laboratory in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, as provincial authorities visit the facility where suspected Ebola samples are being tested.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2026
Containing Ebola is hard. The U.S. made it worse
One thing is certain: The decimation of USAID will make containing the spread much more difficult.
Aid agencies are intensifying efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 21, 2026
Ebola outbreak likely started months ago and spread undetected
The rare Bundibugyo strain circulated for “a couple months” before being identified in blood samples on May 15.
Soldiers provide security at the Rodolphe Merieux Laboratory, National Biomedical Research Institute in Goma, Congo, on Tuesday during a guided visit to the laboratory responsible for analyzing and handling suspected Ebola cases.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 20, 2026
Asian countries boost Ebola precautions after WHO declaration
Officials say the likelihood of local transmission remains low, and no cases have been publicly confirmed in Asia.
A subsidiary of Itochu will take over the Japan sales operations of U.S. medical equipment maker SunMed Group Holdings, which does business in the country as AirLife.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2026
Itochu expands healthcare business with takeover of AirLife’s sales
The move comes as Japan’s trading houses cement healthcare as a key pillar of their businesses, placing it alongside traditional mainstays such as oil, gas and metals.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group President and Group CEO Toru Nakashima in 2025. Nakashima believes that Japan must make better use of medical resources.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 19, 2026
SMFG, Fujitsu and SoftBank forming medical alliance to help contain costs
As Japan faces another wave of retirees, technology might help keep the nation fit and control healthcare spending.
Takeda Pharmaceutical headquarters in Tokyo. The company said it will "vigorously pursue" an appeal after a U.S. jury on Monday found the company liable for causing about $885 million in damages by delaying a generic version of its constipation drug through an anticompetitive scheme.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 19, 2026
Takeda engaged in antitrust scheme to delay generic constipation drug: U.S. jury
The verdict is the ​first time ‌a jury has found a pharmaceutical company liable in class-action litigation over what is called a “pay-for-delay” agreement with generic rivals.
Health minister Kenichiro Ueno speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 19, 2026
Japan supplies antiviral drug to U.K. in response to hantavirus
The U.K. Health Security Agency accepted delivery of the drug, which remains experimental for use to treat hantavirus.
A man is carried from an ambulance as he arrives at a hospital following confirmation of an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, on Saturday.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 17, 2026
WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a global public health emergency
The WHO said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo ⁠virus, does not meet the criteria of ⁠a pandemic emergency.
Amgen headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California. Kissei Pharmaceutical, which sells Amgen's drug Tavneos in Japan, is recommending that doctors stop prescribing it, adding to pressure on the company over a medicine that’s attracted scrutiny from health regulators worldwide.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 16, 2026
Amgen’s Tavneos discouraged by Japanese partner after deaths
Twenty people in Japan died after taking Tavneos, though it’s unclear whether the drug killed those people, a media report said.
A medical worker puts on personal protective equipment before entering an Ebola treatment center in Beni, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in August 2018.
WORLD
May 16, 2026
Ebola’s Africa spread tests global response after aid cuts
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo linked to 80 deaths and hundreds of suspected infections has spread across the border to Uganda.
The government hopes to reduce medical expenses by asking people to pay more for prescription drugs similar to those that can be purchased at drugstores.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 15, 2026
Co-payment to reach 50% for prescription drugs similar to OTC ones in Japan
The current medical system has been criticized for allowing drugs that could be replaced by over-the-counter alternatives to be bought for cheaper through public health insurance.
Jun Tsuyama, a lecturer at the Institute of Science Tokyo, speaking Wednesday during a news conferenceat the university in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward. During the event, Tsuyama explained that a candidate drug capable of sustaining the period for potential recovery after a stroke has been developed in mice.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2026
Japan team identifies drug candidate that may extend recovery after stroke
The period during which motor functions lost due to a stroke can be recovered is currently limited to about two months.
A worker arranges packets of condoms at a pharmacy in Dhaka. Bangladesh's family planning system is buckling under severe contraceptive shortages.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 14, 2026
Supply shortage fuels Bangladesh contraceptive crisis
The shortage is raising fears of a rise in unplanned pregnancies in one of the world’s most densely populated countries.
Shionogi's pharmaceutical research center in the city of Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture. The firm's COVID-19 pill cut the risk of infection among people exposed to the disease at home, according to a recent study.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2026
Shionogi pill prevents COVID-19 in household exposure study
The results mark the first late-stage success for an oral antiviral used to prevent COVID-19 after exposure.
IPS cells cultured by Sumitomo Pharma
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 13, 2026
Health panel approves coverage for iPS cell-derived Parkinson’s disease treatment
The approval of Sumitomo Pharma’s Amchepry makes it the world’s first commercialized medical product derived from iPS cells.
"The next five years are critical in defining Daiichi Sankyo’s future,” CEO Hiroyuki Okuzawa said Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 12, 2026
Daiichi Sankyo bets on new cancer drugs to fuel future growth
The Japanese drugmaker aims to more than double oncology revenue to above ¥2.3 trillion by 2030 and become one of the world’s top five oncology players by 2035.
There are no approved vaccines or known cures for the hantavirus, which is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as hemorrhagic fever.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 9, 2026
Hantavirus scare revives COVID-era conspiracy theories
The misinformation resurged even as the World Health Organization insisted there was minimal risk to the general public from passengers of the MV Hondius.
A deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius en route from Argentina to the African island of Cape Verde is under investigation, though experts say wider spread is unlikely.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2026
The hantavirus outbreak is cause for caution, not panic
Hantaviruses are spread by mice, rats and other rodents. Human infections, which occur when people come in contact with droppings or urine, are relatively uncommon.
Hantavirus is a rare infection typically spread through contact with infected rodent droppings or inhaling contaminated dust. Symptoms can take weeks to appear, and severe cases can progress rapidly to respiratory failure.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 8, 2026
Health officials downplay pandemic risk from cruise hantavirus outbreak
Hantavirus is less transmissible than the coronavirus and doctors say it’s also less adept at mutating.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Sompo looks beyond insurance to focus on well-being
Sompo looks beyond insurance to focus on well-being

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER