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Cranberry Journal

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

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At the close · Nov 4

Health

Top stories in Health

An empty operating theatre with a padded surgical table under a ceiling-mounted surgical light, flanked by two wall monitors, equipment carts, an anaesthesia unit and a blue gas cylinder, under white ceiling panels. Health

A Catholic Hospital System's Affiliate Will Pay $23.50 a Share for Surgery Partners, a 49 Per Cent Premium. Bain Capital Offered $25.75 Last Year and Is Keeping Its Stake.

HealthSpan Partners, an affiliate of the Cincinnati-based Catholic health system Bon Secours Mercy Health, agreed on 26 October to buy Surgery Partners for $23.50 a share in cash, in a deal valued at about $5.7 billion including debt. Bain Capital, which owns about 39 per cent, will roll its shares into the buyer. The deal needs a vote of disinterested shareholders and regulatory approval, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.

By Thomas Gutierrez  

More in Health

A white diesel generator in a utility room beneath wall-mounted electrical units.

Gaza's Hospitals Run Entirely on Generators. Their Diesel Is Funded Until Saturday.

Gaza's Health Ministry says the World Health Organization will stop supplying diesel to more than 20 hospitals and health centres from 19 September because of a funding shortfall. The WHO has not commented. Gaza's hospitals have run on generators since the power was cut in October 2023, and the generators were already running on oil changed a quarter as often as they should be.

By Thomas Gutierrez  

A pharmacist in a white coat reaching up to take a labelled medication carton from a dispensing shelf behind a pharmacy counter.

The FDA Approved It. Whether You Can Get It Depends on a Different Document.

Updated 2026-27 COVID vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax have FDA approval and target the circulating XFG variant. Eligibility guidance has narrowed to those 65 and over and younger adults with qualifying conditions. Insurers say they intend to cover. Three different documents, and only one of them is the one a pharmacy reads.

By Thomas Gutierrez  

A culture growing on agar in a petri dish, lit from below in a laboratory.

One Research Firm Puts Regenerative Medicine at $41 Billion, Heading for $162 Billion. Dr. David Borenstein on Why the FDA Keeps Cracking Down on Unproven Clinics.

DelveInsight, a market-research firm, estimates the global regenerative medicine market at about $41 billion in 2025 and projects roughly $162 billion by 2034. The FDA has spent years pursuing clinics selling unapproved stem cell products, most recently in a January 2025 warning letter to a Pompano Beach, Florida manufacturer. Dr. David Borenstein, a physician who offers regenerative treatments, says patients should ask what a product is before they book.

By Thomas Gutierrez  

Aerial view of the Optum headquarters campus in Eden Prairie, Minnesota: low office buildings, a round brick tower and ponds with fountains beside a divided road.

UnitedHealth Reports Tuesday Against Expectations of About $4.15 a Share. Its Own Guidance Implies a Second-Half Medical Care Ratio Near 91 Per Cent.

UnitedHealth Group will report third-quarter results before the market opens on Tuesday 13 October, with an analyst call at 8:00 a.m. ET. TipRanks and MarketBeat put consensus at $4.12 to $4.15 a share on about $111.3 billion of revenue; the company does not issue quarterly forecasts. Nothing has been reported yet.

By Daniel Okafor  

An empty hospital ward with beds and medical equipment

The Obesity Drug War Just Entered Its Third Act

Eli Lilly's new amylin combination delivered 23.3 percent weight loss in mid-stage trials, the strongest result yet against Novo Nordisk's stumbling pipeline. The obesity drug race is no longer about GLP-1s. It is about whatever comes after them.

By Cory Chamberlain  

A young child held by her mother while receiving an injection at a clinic.

Fifty Thousand Measles Cases, and the Thousandth Child Has Died

Bangladesh has recorded more than 50,000 confirmed or suspected measles cases this year and child deaths have passed a thousand. Measles is the most contagious disease routinely encountered and one of the most completely preventable, which makes an outbreak of this size a measurement of a delivery system rather than of a virus.

By Thomas Gutierrez  

A pharmacy technician at work in a military treatment facility.

The Expensive Shortage Ended. The Cheap One Is Still Running.

Tirzepatide came off the FDA shortage list in December 2024 and semaglutide in February 2025. Ifosfamide, a decades-old chemotherapy used in curative regimens, is three months into a shortage the FDA expects to run into autumn and European regulators into 2027. Same country, same regulator, same manufacturing base.

By Thomas Gutierrez