Health news round-up: tobacco and vapes bill, unlicensed emergency medicine and GLP-1s in pregnancy

This week, The Pharmaceutical Journal has investigated the rise in testosterone use in men, highlighted a sertraline recall and shared new regulations for pharmacy weight management services.

We have also reported on a new treatment for generalised myasthenia gravis, lower risks of recurrent blood clots with apixaban (Eliquis; Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer) compared with warfarin, as well as success in reducing fluoroquinolone prescribing in Wales.

Read on for more health news you might have missed this week.

Tobacco and vapes bill becomes law

Following agreement by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill received royal assent on 29 April 2026. The new law prohibits the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009 and restricts flavours and marketing of vapes and other nicotine products.

Phase III results for promising haemophilia A treatment

Monthly or weekly prophylaxis with denecimig (Mim8; Novo Nordisk), a bispecific antibody mimicking activated factor VIII, significantly reduced bleeding events that required treatment with a coagulation factor product, according to the results of a phase III randomised trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Benztropine injection for acute dystonic reactions

The Specialist Pharmacy Service has issued guidance on using benztropine mesylate injection — an unlicensed medicine — to manage acute dystonic reactions, now that procyclidine 10mg/2ml solution for injection has been discontinued from the UK market. The resource includes guidance on dosing, cautions, as well as sourcing and storing unlicensed medicines.

GLP-1s: Pregnancy, eye stroke, alcohol abuse and alternatives

The results of an analysis of 22 studies — which involved 49,395 human pregnancies with periconceptional glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) exposure — found a small but statistically significant association with renal malformations in children. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution “as it likely reflects residual confounding by maternal disease severity”, the researchers said.

Senior author Javier Tello, lecturer in pharmacology at the School of Medicine at the University of St Andrews, said: “This study tackles an important clinical question amid the surge in weight-loss drug use: their effects on pregnancy. Our findings offer cautious reassurance for women who become pregnant unexpectedly while on these medications but do not endorse routine use during pregnancy.” 

The findings of a separate large cohort study revealed that GLP-1 use was associated with a modestly increased risk of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy compared with sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor use. “While the absolute risk remains low, the specificity of this finding may warrant heightened vigilance,” the researchers said.

In addition, the results of a trial of 108 adults with obesity seeking treatment for alcohol use, published in The Lancet, found that a once-weekly semaglutide injection reduced heavy drinking days per month by an average of roughly 12 days, 50% higher than the eight-day reduction seen in the placebo group.

Meanwhile, the findings of a report published in Molecular Metabolism suggest that the GLP-1 hormone may not be “the secret sauce to weight loss” it is widely believed to be. “What we’ve found in rodents and monkeys is that the combination of glucagon and GIP activity alone are sufficient to achieve comparable weight loss, without the lengthy dosage adjustment and adverse GI [gastrointestinal] side effects,” said co-author Richard DiMarchi.