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Thank you for visiting the Contemporary Pediatrics® website. Take a look at some of our top stories from the week (Monday, June 2, to Friday, June 6, 2025), and click on each link to read and watch anything you may have missed.
On June 2, 2025, the FDA accepted Ascendis Pharma’s new drug application for navepegritide (TransCon CNP), a once-weekly investigational therapy for children with achondroplasia. The agency granted priority review and assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of November 30, 2025. Navepegritide is a prodrug of C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) designed to provide sustained systemic exposure to active CNP, thereby countering the effects of the overactive FGFR3 pathway responsible for achondroplasia’s multisystem complications.
Data from the 52-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 ApproaCH Trial showed that treatment with navepegritide improved annualized growth velocity and bone morphometry—including lower limb alignment, proportional growth, and spinal canal dimensions—compared with placebo in children aged 2 to 11 years.
On May 27, 2025, the CDC removed COVID-19 vaccines from the routine immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant individuals, following an FDA policy shift announced May 20 that established new clinical trial requirements for vaccines intended for healthy populations. However, a May 29 update to the CDC child immunization schedule clarified that COVID-19 vaccines may still be administered to healthy individuals aged 6 months to 17 years through shared clinical decision-making between families and healthcare providers. This change introduced uncertainty and concern among pediatric experts about the inconsistency in messaging and potential impact on vaccination access.
A healthy 12-month-old girl presented with one small skin lesion over the right heel (Image 1) for one month. On examination, her right lateral heel showed a round, white, pearl-like, hard, tiny lesion with a smooth appearance without any redness or itching. The patient's mother denied any pain, swelling, itching or fever. No significant travel, bites, heel stick injuries were reported in the history. No systemic symptoms suggested any underlying systemic diseases. The infant is closely monitored at subsequent well visits and re-checked. After 3 months, the child showed full resolution of the skin lesion over the heel area (Image 2).
On June 4, 2025, the FDA approved an expanded pediatric indication for the SONU Band (SoundHealth), authorizing its use for at-home treatment of moderate-to-severe nasal congestion due to allergic and non-allergic rhinitis in children aged 12 years and older. The decision makes SONU the first FDA-approved, drug-free, AI-enabled device for nasal congestion relief in this age group, following its initial De Novo classification for adult use.
A research letter published in JAMA presented new county-level data showing widespread declines in measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination rates across the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis, based on school-year data from 2017 to 2024, confirmed that 78% of 2066 evaluated counties experienced a drop in coverage, with average rates falling from 93.9% to 91.3%. While declines varied by state, only California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York saw median county-level increases.
The data highlight growing vulnerability to vaccine-preventable diseases, as evidenced by the 1001 measles cases reported across 31 jurisdictions in 2025 (as of May 14)—the highest annual total in over 30 years, excluding 2019. Authors emphasized that this high-resolution dataset could aid in identifying localized risks and informing targeted public health responses to mitigate future outbreaks.
