Category: 3. Business

Four key plasma proteins associated with potential causal roles in blood pressure (BP) regulation and increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) events, including coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke, were identified in a Mendelian randomization (MR) study published Oct. 10 in EHJ.

First, Devendra Meena, DPhil, et al., leveraged genetic instruments from 2007 plasma proteins measured in the UK Biobank study to determine their causal effects on systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) in an MR analysis. Then they performed Bayesian co-localization analyses to test whether identified associations shared causal variants. Last, they examined proteins showing strong associations in UK Biobank participants to assess relationships between proteins, BP and cardiovascular events.

Results showed that 242 proteins associated with BP (185 for SBP, 137 for DBP; false discovery rate [FDR] <0.05) were identified using proteome-wide MR. Of these, 48 were also linked to CAD or stroke. Four proteins (ACOX1, FGF5, FURIN, and MST1) were reported with potential causal roles and were supported by genetic co-localization analyses (FDR 5%; posterior probability ≥70%).

Findings also revealed that genetically predicted FURIN and FGF5 were strongly associated with BP and stroke risk, whereas ACOX1, FGF5 and MST1 might have causal effects on CAD. Notably, network MR indicated that a large portion of their impact on CAD and stroke (31%–78%) was mediated through BP regulation. These findings were further supported by observational analyses.

Meena and colleagues write that “these findings provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying hypertension-related [cardiovascular disease] and identify promising protein targets for further investigation.”

In an accompanying editorial comment, Patricia B. Munroe, PhD, et al., note that the study “provides a framework for exploring causal and mediator relationships between plasma proteins of risk factors and disease outcomes” and that the findings “provide a ‘snapshot’ of the role of BP proteins on cardiovascular outcomes, as datasets are limited to plasma and there is incomplete coverage of the proteome.”

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The UK financial watchdog has filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange linked to Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who has invested millions of dollars in US President Donald Trump’s digital asset ventures.

The Financial Conduct Authority said that it had filed the lawsuit against HTX in the High Court this week “for unlawfully promoting cryptoasset services to UK consumers in breach of the UK’s financial promotions regime”. It is the first time the UK regulator has taken such action against a crypto company.

“This action is part of our commitment to protect consumers and uphold the integrity of UK financial markets,” the FCA said, without providing more details of its lawsuit.

“We have seen crypto firms react positively to our financial promotions rules and regulation, however where we still see poor practices we will not hesitate to take action where firms appear to be breaching our rules,” it said.

Sun is a well known crypto entrepreneur who has experienced brushes with law enforcement in the past. He is an adviser to HTX and runs the crypto companies BitTorrent and Tron, which has the TRX token. 

Sun spent $75mn on tokens issued by the Trump family’s crypto company World Liberty Financial shortly before a separate US lawsuit against him and three of his companies for alleged wash trading — a form of market manipulation — was paused this year.

He also flew on Jeff Bezos’ spacecraft in August and last year became infamous for buying and eating a $6mn banana as part of an art installation in Hong Kong. 

HTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The FCA has included HTX, as well as its previous incarnation Huobi, on its warning list of companies that it believes are seeking to attract UK consumers without having the necessary authorisation. 

The UK regulator requires crypto companies to register with it before they are authorised to carry out business in the country — but HTX is not among the almost 50 groups to have done so. The registration process requires checks on financial crime and anti-money laundering controls.

In 2023, Sun and his companies were sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged fraud, including for allegedly engaging in wash trading. In February, a federal court accepted the SEC’s and Sun’s request to pause the case. Sun had denied the allegations and had sought to have the case dismissed.

Sun has spent millions of dollars on buying the US president’s memecoin, becoming its top holder and securing an invite to the White House and Trump’s Virginia golf club in May. He later pledged to buy $100mn more of the memecoin. In June, World Liberty Financial began minting its token USD1 on Tron’s exchange, boosting its volumes and fees. 

Tron went public on Nasdaq this year in a reverse merger, and is buying and holding the TRX token, becoming one of hundreds of so-called crypto treasury companies. 

Additional reporting by Alistair Gray in London

UNICEF and GSMA have launched the Africa Taskforce on Child Online Protection (COP), the first of its kind, to strengthen children’s safety, rights and wellbeing in the digital world.

Launched at MWC25 Kigali, the Taskforce will serve as a multi-stakeholder platform to lead, coordinate and advance child online protection efforts across Africa, while helping to build national and regional capacity to keep children safe online.

The launch follows the GSMA’s June 2025 whitepaper, Enhancing Child Online Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa, developed in collaboration with UNICEF and regional partners. The whitepaper called for strengthened action from governments, industry, civil society, and youth to build safer digital environments for children, and directly recommended the establishment of this Taskforce as a mechanism to drive implementation.

As more children across Africa come online – at one of the fastest rates globally – they face increasing risks ranging from cyberbullying and exploitation to misinformation and exposure to harmful content. Africa’s mobile-first landscape, rapid technological change, and growing youth population present both opportunity and risk. With the continent’s unique digital landscape, the rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence and a growing youth population, the need for a homegrown, African-led approach to child online protection has never been more urgent.

“As Africa’s children step boldly into the digital world, their safety must come first. The Africa Taskforce on Child Online Protection is a uniquely African platform to ensure technology shields children from harm while opening doors to learning, play, and growth,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Etleva Kadilli. “By uniting governments, partners, and young people, we can make safety the foundation of Africa’s digital future.”

The taskforce will bring together partners from across the mobile industry, technology sector, regulatory bodies, law enforcement and civil society to strengthen cooperation and drive the implementation of existing regional frameworks and policies.

Caroline Mbugua, Director of Public Policy at GSMA Africa, added: “The Taskforce marks an important step from strategy to action, turning the whitepaper’s recommendations into tangible regional progress. By working alongside UNICEF, governments, industry, and youth representatives, we aim to embed safety into Africa’s digital transformation journey and ensure children’s voices shape the policies that define their future. Together, we will strengthen digital governance, promote safety by design, and ensure that children and young people’s voices shape the policies that define Africa’s digital future. By working in partnership, we can position Africa as a global leader in child-centred digital governance.”

To date, the Africa Taskforce on Child Online Protection brings together a diverse coalition of partners, including Axian Telecom, Child Helpline International, INTERPOL, International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), Internet Watch Foundation, MTN Group, MtotoNews, Orange, Paramount Africa, Safaricom, Vodacom Group and Youth Representatives from Nigeria and Rwanda.

Young people who contributed to the whitepaper’s consultations – including youth advocates such as 19-year-old Jemima Kasongo – will continue to play an active role through the Taskforce, ensuring that the perspectives of Africa’s next generation remain central to this work.

New product filings to FDA included stronger safety features and larger technological advances

In 2019, a KFF Health News investigation reported that the Food and Drug Administration had for some 20 years allowed medical device makers to report adverse events — from minor to fatal — on certain products to a database that wasn’t public and that few people even knew existed.

This secret system, known as Alternative Summary Reporting, or ASR, grew to 6 million reports of adverse events alongside continuing operation of the FDA’s public database for such bad news, Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience, known as MAUDE. 

Once KFF Health News revealed its existence, the FDA terminated the secret filing system and made public the entire ASR database, filling in what had been very patchy disclosure of some medical device problems. Filings to ASR had represented about two-thirds of all reported malfunctions and injuries involving approved medical devices between 1997 and 2019. 

In a working paper, University of Utah’s Colleen Cunningham and UCLA Anderson’s Jennifer Kao assess how this sudden and massive increase in transparency affected innovation in the medical device industry. Cunningham and Kao study two mechanisms at work as the industry came to grips with actual disclosure:

• Manufacturers could no longer “withhold their own negative product quality information,” the authors note, recapping prior research on the episode. “Knowledge of the program was quite limited before it was terminated in 2019. The ASR database was created without any public notice or regulations. According to former industry insiders, ASR using firms were very “tight-lipped” about it. Sales representatives could credibly ignore ASR (adverse events) to make devices seem safer. Many safety experts, physicians and former FDA officials, including former FDA deputy commissioner Dr. Robert Califf, were unaware of ASR’s existence.” Companies now knew that they’d have to publicly report problems with devices and deal with any fallout.

• Manufacturers learned about the problems their competitors had encountered. This allowed far more advanced risk assessment of particular technologies and of entire product categories. And it holds the potential to make research and development more efficient.

The transparency altered the quantity and quality of innovation efforts. After the release, the number of applications for new devices fell about 19% in product markets that had at least one incident reported through ASR, Cunningham and Kao report. This occurred across about 100 product categories, including pacemaker electrodes, various catheters, surgical staplers and popular types of breast prostheses.

The quality and safety of new medical devices, meanwhile, got better. Device applications that were submitted in the years following the release typically included stronger safety features and larger technological advancements, the authors show.

The numerical decline is mainly due to manufacturers pivoting away from newly scrutinized product categories, according to Cunningham and Kao’s analysis. The decisions appear driven by the revelations that competitors were having issues with specific products, rather than embarrassment or liability fears surrounding negative exposure around their own devices, the study suggests. With an understanding of more than just their own device problems, firms appeared to reassess potential market risks of the problematic devices, and redeployed research and development funds to other products. 

At the same time, product introductions appeared to be different after the data release. New players may have been surprised by all of the adverse events that came to light with the FDA’s disclosure. As incumbents withdrew, these newcomers faced less competition and could use the new data to inform their product development decisions. After some years, these new entrants introduced safer, higher quality devices to fill the void.

The data dump also appeared to affect development of products that were technologically similar to, but not a part of, the disclosure, the study finds. (These products have “predicate relationships,” in FDA terms. They may, for example, use similar components.) Cunningham and Kao found reduced research and development funding in this category after the data release.

A two-day Dialogue on traditional knowledge, biodiversity and health, held on 1–2 October 2025 at the University of Ottawa, Canada, laid a foundation for strengthened Indigenous-led engagement in global health and biodiversity governance, anchored in trust, partnership and co-creation.

The ‘Ottawa Dialogue on Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity and Health: Restoring Trust, Strengthening Partnerships, and Advancing Indigenous-Led Pathways’ brought together 25 participants, including Indigenous Elders, knowledge holders, community leaders, researchers, policy-makers, medical practitioners and UN representatives. It was hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples’ Centre for Documentation, Research and Information (Docip), the Ărramăt Project and Tinhinan Canada Association. The event marked a key step in co-developing WHO’s forthcoming Framework on Indigenous Knowledge, Biodiversity and Health, coordinated through the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre and the WHO Environment, Climate Change and One Health Department.

Held during events to mark the 10th anniversary of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report, the Dialogue centred discussions around truth-telling, reparative justice and respectful and rights-based engagement. Elder Claudette Commanda, Algonquin Anishinaabe Elder and Chancellor of the University of Ottawa opened the Dialogue with a land acknowledgement, ceremonial blessing and reflection, reminding participants that Indigenous knowledge must be protected, not misappropriated. Cristina Romanelli, WHO Biodiversity and Health Focal Point, underscored WHO’s role in the Dialogue to support Indigenous leadership in the co-creation process: listening, learning and walking alongside Indigenous partners to co-design a Framework that would serve as a blueprint for respectful engagement across all seven sociocultural regions.

In the high-level opening, presentations from First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders set the stage for the Framework’s core pillars: trust, reciprocity, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), equity and a holistic understanding of health and biodiversity grounded in Indigenous rights and worldviews.

Over two days, participants shared perspectives that grounded the discussion in lived experience and community realities, shaping the Framework’s normative, operational and legal foundations. Speakers linked the wellness of lands, waters, biodiversity and peoples and how these are inseparable from health and well-being. The also emphasized how, across Indigenous worldviews, health and biodiversity are inseparable from territory and stewardship.

They also emphasized Indigenous data sovereignty intergenerational and gender equity, cultural safety and the centrality of Indigenous knowledge systems, culture, language and methodologies were central tenets of the Framework.

Discussions also highlighted the creation of the Convention on Biological Diversity Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j) and associated Programme of Work, as a historic step centring Indigenous Peoples leadership in the biodiversity agenda.

Dr Geetha Krishnan, an Ayurvedic physician and WHO Technical Officer, explained that the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre was established to catalyse ancestral wisdom alongside modern science for the health of people and the planet, with a dedicated workstream on biodiversity, Indigenous Peoples and traditional knowledge. He reaffirmed that Indigenous Peoples are rights-holders and that respect, reciprocity and FPIC must guide co-design of the new WHO Framework.

Outcomes from the Dialogue will inform the draft WHO Framework on Indigenous Knowledge, Biodiversity and Health, to be shared with Indigenous Peoples across the seven sociocultural regions at the first meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j) (27–30 October 2025, Panama) and at the second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine (17–19 December 2025, India).

Virgin Australia has unleashed a new era of travel, becoming the first airline down under to launch a Pets in Cabin service.

The flights have kicked off with services between Melbourne, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast. Initially launching as a trial until 30 January 2026 before a planned rollout to all eligible domestic flights by late next year.

The service is already proving a hit for sunseekers, with more than half of all Pets in Cabin bookings to date made for the summer season. For many Australians, this means no more difficult goodbyes when the suncream and suitcases get rolled out.

This isn’t the airline’s first first either. Innovation runs in Virgin Australia’s DNA. From pioneering online check-in to introducing the Middle Seat Lottery (making life a little bit sweeter when you draw the short straw), and launching the country’s first Pride Flight – Virgin Australia has a track record of rewriting aviation norms.

To celebrate the inaugural furry flight (VA733 from Melbourne to the Gold Coast), guests were treated to 10,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points (enough to redeem a one-way domestic flight) and treated to a special in-flight announcement from none other than Richard Branson. As he put it: “This is history in the making, and I hope it’s making everyone smile”, before adding an obligatory, “woof, woof!”

Allowing pets to travel in the cabin speaks to Virgin Australia’s spirit of doing things differently to make flying just that little bit more wonderful. As the airline’s CEO Dave Emerson put it: “Pets are part of the family, and this new service is about making sure every member, human or furry, can enjoy the journey together. We’ve always believed in doing things differently, and this innovation continues that legacy.”

How it works, in case you’re curious…

Eligible small dogs and cats can travel for an introductory price of $149 per animal, per flight. Pets must travel in an approved soft-sided carrier that fits under the seat in front of their owner.

There will be a limit of four pets per flight, and guests travelling with pets will be seated in designated window seat rows to ensure comfort and safety for all passengers.

Virgin Australia’s advanced air filtration systems remove 99% of airborne particles, including pet dander, to ensure the cabin remains allergy-safe. Guests with allergies can also choose alternative seating, free of charge.

Bookings for Pets in Cabin can be made by calling the Virgin Australia Guest Contact Centre on 13 67 89.

Find more pet-friendly details right here.