Hi readers,

Hope you’ve all had a good holiday and welcome back.

One of the more interesting feline health signals this week comes from China, where Huadong Medicine has filed for marketing approval of pribopeptide, a GLP-1–based weight-management drug for cats.

If approved, Huadong Medicine would move ahead of US-based Akston and Okava Pharmaceuticals, whose GLP-1 treatment candidates are still in early development. Huadong Medicine’s filing further bolsters China’s growing role as a source of innovative veterinary pharmaceuticals, not just as a generics factory.

Questions remain around long-term safety, veterinary uptake, and whether such therapies would ultimately clear US or European regulators without additional data. The development does, however, highlight how human treatment platforms are increasingly spilling into feline medicine. Watch this space.

CDC posts and deletes data on bird flu spread between cats and people

Smart cat flap startup Flappie raises over CHF722,000 in crowdfunding, well past goal

Dong-A Pharmaceutical launches two types of 'Vetple V-Treat' oral care snacks for cats

A nationwide survey in Japan showed that over 70% of cat owners feel a dilemma on taking their cat to the veterinary clinic: Boehringer Ingelheim study (in Japanese)

Sino-American Huadong files for marketing approval in China of Class I new veterinary drug HDM7006 (prepoereptide) for weight management in obese adult cats (in Chinese)

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