The HCPFive: Top News for Healthcare Providers from the Week of 03/16

Welcome to The HCPFive, your go-to roundup for the latest healthcare news and breakthroughs, curated specifically for busy healthcare professionals.

Each week, we highlight 5 key developments or headlines from healthcare that you need to know—whether it's a cutting-edge treatment, regulatory updates, or innovations shaping the future of medicine. This week's top stories focused on new migraine guidelines from the American College of Physicians (ACP), the benefits of automated insulin delivery (AID) for insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes, and a trio of recent US Food and Drug Administration approvals for Crohn’s disease, C3 glomerulopathy, and transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM).

With The HCPFive, you'll get the essential takeaways to stay informed and ahead of the curve. Here’s your quick dive into the top stories for the week of March 16, 2025—let’s jump in!

Interested in oncology news? Check out The OncFive, from our sister publication OncLive.

New ACP Guidelines Recommend Adding Triptan to NSAID or Acetaminophen for Migraines

New recommendations from the American College of Physicians (ACP) now recommend adding a triptan to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen to treat moderate to severe acute episodic migraine headaches. Based on the ACP’s evaluation of migraine pharmacologic treatments, this updated guideline recommends clinicians counsel their patients to initiate combination therapy urgently after the onset of an acute migraine headache.

Automated Insulin Delivery Effectively Lowers HbA1c in Type 2 Diabetes

Automated insulin delivery (AID) with Tandem Diabetes Care’s Control-IQ+ technology led to a superior reduction in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) than continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) alone in adults with insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes (T2D). At 13 weeks, the mean HbA1c levels decreased by 0.9% with AID and by 0.3% in the control group (P <.001) in 319 participants with T2D.

For further insight into the algorithm’s recent clearance, check out a recent Diabetes Dialogue episode featuring Laurel Messer, PhD, RN, senior director of medical affairs at Tandem Diabetes Care.

FDA Approves Guselkumab (Tremfya) For Crohn's Disease

The FDA approved Johnson & Johnson’s guselkumab (Tremfya) for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease. According to data from multiple phase 3 trials, including the GALAXI trials, guselkumab outperformed ustekinumab (Stelara) on multiple endoscopic endpoints. Guselkumab now boasts indications for moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC).

FDA Approves Oral Iptacopan (Fabhalta) as First C3 Glomerulopathy Therapy

The FDA approved Novartis’ oral iptacopan (Fabhalta) for the treatment of adults with C3 glomerulopathy (C3G), to reduce proteinuria, marking the first approval for the ultra-rare kidney disease. Based on data from the phase 3 APPEAR-C3G trial, iptacopan reduced the 24-hour urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) by 35.1% (P =.0014), with sustained reductions at 12 months.

FDA Approves Vutrisiran (AMVUTTRA) for ATTR-CM

The FDA approved Alnylam’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for vutrisiran (AMVUTTRA) for the treatment of adults with cardiomyopathy of wild-type or hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (ATTR-CM). With this expanded indication, vutrisiran becomes the first approved RNAi therapeutic targeted to reduce cardiovascular mortality, cardiovascular hospitalizations, and urgent heart failure visits in ATTR-CM.