The HCPFive: Top News for Healthcare Providers from the Week of 03/22

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 span 3 major medical meetings in simultaneous coverage—the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting in Denver, and the World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) in Yokohama, Japan—alongside a landmark regulatory decision in diabetes care. Coverage includes new mechanistic data on semaglutide's kidney protection, a nuanced phase 2 readout for tonlamarsen in resistant hypertension, one-year icotrokinra data in plaque psoriasis, REMODEL trial insights into how GLP-1 receptor agonists benefit the kidney at the cellular level, and the FDA's approval of the first once-weekly basal insulin.

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 22, 2026—let's jump in!

Sustained Disease Reduction Observed at 1 Year of Icotrokinra in Psoriasis, With Linda Stein Gold, MD

New 52-week data from the ICONIC-ADVANCE 1, ICONIC-ADVANCE 2, and ICONIC-LEAD studies, presented at AAD 2026, showed that icotrokinra (Icotyde) achieved increasing rates of complete skin clearance through week 52 with no new safety signals, including in adolescents, where nearly 60% achieved completely clear skin at one year. These data, presented alongside icotrokinra's recent FDA approval as the first oral IL-23 receptor antagonist for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, reinforce the drug's durability profile and its potential role as a first-line systemic option.

Monthly Tonlamarsen Reduces Angiotensinogen, Shows Mixed Results for Blood Pressure

Phase 2 KARDINAL trial data presented at ACC.26 and simultaneously published in JACC showed that monthly tonlamarsen produced significantly greater reductions in plasma angiotensinogen than a single dose in adults with uncontrolled hypertension on multiple antihypertensives, but failed to demonstrate additional blood pressure lowering with continued monthly dosing. Lead author Luke Laffin, MD, of Cleveland Clinic attributed the mixed result to unexpectedly prolonged angiotensinogen suppression following a single dose, and called for future placebo-controlled trials without an active run-in design to better characterize the drug's true antihypertensive effect.

FDA Approves Awiqli (Insulin Icodec) as First Once-Weekly Basal Insulin for Type 2 Diabetes

The FDA approved Awiqli (insulin icodec-abae) as the first and only once-weekly basal insulin for adults with type 2 diabetes, offering an alternative to daily injections and reducing the annual injection burden from 365 to 52 doses per year. The approval was supported by the ONWARDS phase 3a clinical program, and the therapy is expected to launch nationally in the second half of 2026.

REMODEL: Mechanistic Insights Into Semaglutide in CKD, With Petter Bjornstad, MD

At WCN 2026 in Yokohama, Petter Bjornstad, MD, executive director of the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute and professor at the University of Washington, presented REMODEL as a first-of-its-kind phase 3 mechanistic trial integrating advanced MRI, kidney biopsy analysis, and biomarker profiling to clarify the biological basis of semaglutide's kidney-protective effects in patients with type 2 diabetes and CKD. Findings pointed to microvascular and endothelial improvements—including reduced renal vascular resistance and healthier endothelial gene expression at the glomerular filtration barrier—as central to semaglutide's cardiorenal benefits, with Bjornstad describing the trial design as a blueprint for future mechanistic studies in kidney disease.

APEX: Zumilokibart Shows Durable Response at 52 Weeks in Atopic Dermatitis

Positive 52-week maintenance data from Part A of the phase 2 APEX trial showed that zumilokibart demonstrated strong maintenance of response among week 16 responders and continued deepening of efficacy across lesion and itch endpoints in the full treated population, with both 3- and 6-month dosing regimens and no new safety signals. Apogee Therapeutics plans to initiate phase 3 trials in the second half of 2026 following anticipated Part B induction data in Q2, with a potential commercial launch targeted for 2029 pending regulatory outcomes.