Yearender 2025: How new obesity rules, Alzheimer’s blood tests and gene editing made landmark changes in healthcare

When it comes to India, one of the novel therapies to clear out these protein plaques in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients was approved by the drug regulator.

From obesity treatment to the creation of sugar boards in India, the Indian Express takes a look at the significant developments in healthcare witnessed this year, within the country and internationally. These stories have focused on newer diagnostics and treatments, access to available ones, and policies for healthier lives.

The year started with a change in the way obesity is defined — moving away from using only body mass index (BMI) to a more comprehensive method that takes into account physical attributes such as height, weight and waist circumference, along with symptoms such as breathlessness, wheezing, sleep apnoea, high triglyceride levels, metabolic dysfunctions, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic fatigue, and joint pains among others. It also takes into account physical activities a person is able to and undertakes in their day to day lives, according to a Lancet commission.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also considered obesity to be a chronic, relapsing condition in their first-ever guideline on the use of the new GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. The guideline recommends long-term use of GLP-1 drugs for all adults, but adds that it should come with lifestyle changes and behavioural therapy. The WHO also included these medicines in its model essential medicine list — a list that is used as template by other countries for deciding what medicines should mandatorily and affordably be available in their healthcare systems.

The year was significant when it comes to India’s weight-loss journey, with two of the popular GLP-1 drugs — Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide and Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide — finally entering the market.

This year saw convincing evidence on shingles vaccine reducing the risk of dementia. In a “natural experiment” from Wales — where the shingles vaccine was rolled out in 2013 for 79-year-olds and those above the age of 80 remained unvaccinated — dementia diagnoses went down by 3.5 percentage points in the vaccinated. This equates to a 20% lower relative risk of getting dementia compared to the unvaccinated population.

This was also the year where the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first blood test for diagnosing Alzheimer’s. While the amyloid beta protein plaques are a hallmark of the neurodegenerative disease, it can only be seen in PET scans. Instead, the new test measures the ratio of two proteins in the blood, which has been shown to correlate with the formation of plaques in the patient’s brain.

US researchers developed a gene-editing therapy specifically to address the genetic errors in a baby with a rare condition. Baby KJ was diagnosed with a genetic metabolic disorder called carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS-1) deficiency where the body struggles to get rid of ammonia, with babies usually needing liver transplants. The individualised gene editing therapy allowed the baby to eat proteins normally, reduce the medicines needed to control ammonia levels, and put on weight.

In the UK, researchers used donor mitochondria to prevent mitochondrial disease in eight children. Women with faulty mitochondria can pass it on to their children, who can get symptoms ranging from mild to life-threatening organ failure. By using the genetic material of a healthy donor, the researchers were able to remove the faulty mitochondria.

In India, researchers from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology have developed a gene-editing therapy platform as well as a therapy for sickle cell disease called Birsa-101 based on it. Both the therapy and the platform has been shared, non-exclusively, with the Serum Institute of India for further development and testing.

With obesity and diabetes on the rise among children in India, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recently directed its affiliated schools to establish sugar boards to monitor and reduce sugar intake in children at school canteens. The school boards will educate the children and their families about healthy eating and offer healthy options in school meals.

With fast foods and cold-drinks readily available, sugar has become a mainstay in children’s diet, accounting for 13% of the daily calorie intake in children between the ages of 4 and 10 years and 15% for those between the ages of 11 and 18 years. This is much higher than the recommended 5%.

This year saw a significant development when it comes to increasing access to unaffordable medicines, with the Supreme Court allowing Natco pharmaceuticals to manufacture a generic version of the drug risdiplam meant for the treatment of patients with the rare condition spinal muscular atrophy. This is only the second time that a drug patent has been successfully challenged in the country in the last two decades — since product patenting was allowed in India’s new law that came to force in 2005. The generic version of the drug is likely to reduce the price of each bottle of the drug from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 15,900, a huge relief.