Little over a decade ago, the US FDA approved Merck’s Gardasil, the first preventive human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Since then, vaccination programmes have been rolled out worldwide and now, the UK is planning to extend the HPV vaccination to boys from 2019. We take a look at a decade of progress to track the major developments of HPV vaccines.

We also explore how the genes of patients who suffer from a hereditary form of Alzheimer’s disease could provide a deeper understanding of the disorder, find out how a unique brain ‘fingerprint’ developed by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute could help doctors predict the effectiveness of treatments, and examine new research that has found that lipoprotein lipase enhancers help statins reduce the risk of heart attacks.

Plus, we take a look at the decision making process of mega pharmacies after the largest independent manager of pharmacy benefits in the US dropped several drugs once considered to be untouchable, and investigate whether a lack of female participants is affecting heart disease trial results.