How much does a mammogram cost? Depends on whether it’s diagnostic or screening.

How much does a mammogram cost? Depends on whether it’s diagnostic or screening.

Hello and welcome to Financial Face-off, a MarketWatch column where we help you weigh a financial decision. Our columnist will give her verdict. Tell us whether you think she’s right in the comments. And please share your suggestions for future Financial Face-off columns by emailing our columnist at lal[email protected].  This column usually lays out the…

Flight attendants brace for a long, hot summer of passengers behaving badly

Flight attendants brace for a long, hot summer of passengers behaving badly

After six years of flying, U.S.-based flight attendant Allyah McIntyre was used to dealing with difficult passengers. During the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, dealing with the few passengers who chose to fly was actually a pleasant experience. But as more people began to book airline tickets again, chaos reigned, she said. “The passengers…

World Health Organization warns nonsugar sweeteners may increase risk of diabetes and heart disease

World Health Organization warns nonsugar sweeteners may increase risk of diabetes and heart disease

The World Health Organization said Monday it is advising people not to use nonsugar sweeteners for weight control, warning that they may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mortality in adults. The agency said a systematic review of the available evidence suggests nonsugar sweeteners do not confer any long-term benefit in…

FDA advisers narrowly back accelerated approval of Sarepta gene therapy

FDA advisers narrowly back accelerated approval of Sarepta gene therapy

U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 8-6 Friday to recommend the agency grant accelerated approval to Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.’s gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy despite questions about its clinical benefit and safety. Should it be approved, the first-of-its-kind potential one-time experimental therapy, called SRP-9001, could radically change how patients with DMD are treated….

Eli Lilly on track to close with a higher market cap than J&J for first time since 1997

Eli Lilly on track to close with a higher market cap than J&J for first time since 1997

Eli Lilly & Co. was on track Friday to close with a greater market capitalization than Johnson & Johnson for the first time since October 1997, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock LLY, +0.13% has been steadily rising since the release of positive data from a trial of a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease…

Debt-ceiling standoff: Here’s what could go into a bipartisan deal

Debt-ceiling standoff: Here’s what could go into a bipartisan deal

While a breakthrough doesn’t appear imminent in Washington’s debt-ceiling standoff, there is increasing chatter about what could go into a bipartisan deal that ends the stalemate and avoids a market-shaking default. “The centerpiece of an obvious deal would be a two-year cap on discretionary spending, somewhere in between the president’s 6% proposed increase and the…

GoPro to drop prices on cameras after earnings miss, revenue decline

GoPro to drop prices on cameras after earnings miss, revenue decline

GoPro Inc. is reducing prices that were raised earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, after the action-camera company announced that revenue declined nearly 20% in the first three months of the year. GoPro GPRO announced that it will return to prepandemic pricing structures on its lineup of cameras, slicing $50 to $100 off most models. For…

Gilead shares fall after mixed results, as weaker COVID-19 drug remand weighs

Gilead shares fall after mixed results, as weaker COVID-19 drug remand weighs

Gilead Sciences Inc. on Thursday cut one of its profit forecasts and reported first-quarter profit that missed expectations, with weaker demand for its COVID-19 drug weighing on results. The company reported first-quarter net income of $985 million, or 80 cents a share, compared with $12 million, or two cents a share, in the same quarter…

Two breakthroughs on dementia — one that’s useful right now

Two breakthroughs on dementia — one that’s useful right now

Six million among us have full-blown Alzheimer’s disease, including 10% of those over 65 and half of everyone over 80. And many more have other types of dementia, or cognitive impairment typically associated with age. Actor Bruce Willis, a mere 68 years young, is the latest heartbreaking example in the public eye. So when it…

Non-smoking lung cancer is on the rise. Blame pollution.

Non-smoking lung cancer is on the rise. Blame pollution.

A long-established report card grading air quality around the country has uncovered worrisome takeaways. For one, the American Lung Association, which issues the grades, finds that lung cancer among non-smokers is on the rise, with pollution considered a likely contributor. Second, communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and the serious pulmonary conditions…

Merck’s $10.8 billion takeover of Prometheus gives it a foothold in immunology

Merck’s $10.8 billion takeover of Prometheus gives it a foothold in immunology

Merck & Co.’s $10.8 billion acquisition of Prometheus Biosciences Inc., which it announced Sunday, is a strategic positive that will help the drug company diversify its portfolio and reduce the risk of an overreliance on its cancer drug Keytruda, analysts said Monday. San Diego, Calif.-based Prometheus RXDX, +69.37% is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focusing on…

Roche’s Tecentriq shows further good survival rates as cancer treatment

Roche’s Tecentriq shows further good survival rates as cancer treatment

Roche Holding AG said Sunday that its tecentriq immunotherapy drug showed further positive results in an advanced study, demonstrating significant improvement in recurrence-free survival in patients. Tecentriq plus Avastin reduced the risk of recurrence of disease by 28% in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma at high risk of recurrence after liver resection or ablation with curative…

Moderna, Merck combo cancer-vaccine treatment shows ‘significant’ promise

Moderna, Merck combo cancer-vaccine treatment shows ‘significant’ promise

A cancer vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc. showed promising results in a key study, reducing the risk of recurrence or death by 44%, the drug makers said Sunday. About 79% of melanoma patients in a 157-person trial who were treated with Moderna’s personalized mRNA-4157 (V940) therapy in combination with Merck’s…

Merck to buy Prometheus Biosciences for $10.8 billion

Merck to buy Prometheus Biosciences for $10.8 billion

Drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. announced Sunday a deal to acquire Prometheus Biosciences Inc. for $200 a share, or about $10.8 billion. Prometheus is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focusing on autoimmune treatments, such as PRA023, a treatment under development for illnesses such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.  “The agreement with Prometheus will accelerate…

Are you about to file your taxes? Take the MarketWatch Tax Quiz to see if you are prepared

Are you about to file your taxes? Take the MarketWatch Tax Quiz to see if you are prepared

April is National Financial Literacy Month. To mark the occasion, MarketWatch will publish a series of “Financial Fitness” articles to help readers improve their fiscal health, and offer advice on how to save, invest and spend their money wisely. Read more here. Millions of Americans file taxes every year in a process that might fill…

WW’s stock soars after deal to buy weight-loss drug prescriber Sequence closes

WW’s stock soars after deal to buy weight-loss drug prescriber Sequence closes

Shares of WW International Inc. WW, +47.55%, the parent of Weight Watchers, soared on heavy volume Tuesday after the weight-management and wellness company said the deal to buy the telehealth company doing business as Sequence has been completed. The acquisition of Sequence, which is part of Weekend Health Inc., provides WW with a prescriber of…

New blood test promises to detect cancerous tumors before they are formed

New blood test promises to detect cancerous tumors before they are formed

The future of cancer treatment — hailed as the “holy grail” of early detection — is now being put to the test. Following a radically successful trial on cancer patients, a new blood test that promises to predict tumors more than a year before they begin to form is now being applied in hospitals across…

Novartis gets positive result from breast-cancer drug trial

Novartis gets positive result from breast-cancer drug trial

Novartis AG said Monday that a trial evaluating breast-cancer drug Kisqali met its primary endpoint during an interim analysis. The drug is shown to significantly reduce the risk of disease recurrence when used together with an endocrine therapy in patients with certain types of early breast cancers at risk of recurrence, the company said. The…

A 63-year-old woman had a heart attack. Her advice could save your life.

A 63-year-old woman had a heart attack. Her advice could save your life.

One person dies every 34 seconds in the U.S. from cardiovascular disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and this means each of us has to be mindful of our heart health so that we are not one of them. I firmly believe we all need to be mindful of our overall health. Being…