Know about Express Scripts's gene therapies, post-sex blues, China's substandard baby vaccines

A Chinese drug company produced nearly 500,000 substandard vaccines for babies, roughly double an earlier estimate by authorities investigating a safety scandal, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

Long-acting injection a shot in the arm for GSK's HIV business

A long-acting injection developed by GlaxoSmithKline and given once a month has proved as effective as standard daily pills for controlling the AIDS virus, lifting prospects for the British drugmaker's key HIV business. GSK's majority-owned ViiV Healthcare unit said on Wednesday the experimental two-drug injection of cabotegravir and rilpivirine maintained similar rates of viral suppression compared with a standard three-drug oral regimen, after 48 weeks of a clinical trial.

New York sues OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over opioids

New York state on Tuesday sued Purdue Pharma LP, accusing the OxyContin maker of widespread fraud and deception in the marketing of opioids, and contributing to a nationwide epidemic that has killed thousands. The state blamed Purdue for running what it called a reckless, decades-long scheme to mislead doctors and patients by overstating the ability of opioids to improve bodily function while downplaying the risk of addiction.

#BREAKING: We are filing suit against Purdue Pharma for persistent and widespread fraud and deception in marketing #opioids. Purdue lined its own pockets by deliberately exploiting our communities, fueling a crisis that has devastated NY families. We are holding them to account. pic.twitter.com/B9u3FT4Yzj

— NY AG Underwood (@NewYorkStateAG) August 14, 2018

Express Scripts staking out million-dollar gene therapies

Express Scripts Holding Co built a multi-billion enterprise pressuring drug companies to lower their prices for U.S. patients. Now it is quietly building a side business: getting paid to help drug companies dispense a new generation of high-priced drugs. Express Scripts is in talks with biotechnology companies Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc, Spark Therapeutics Inc and Bluebird Bio Inc to have its specialty pharmaceutical business exclusively distribute their new hemophilia therapies when they are expected to become available in 2019 and 2020, Chief Medical Officer Steve Miller told Reuters in an interview.

China's Liaoning culls more than 8,000 hogs after African swine fever outbreak

Northeast China's Liaoning province has now culled 8,116 hogs in response to an outbreak of African swine fever earlier this month, the provincial animal husbandry bureau told Reuters on Wednesday. No new cases have been discovered in provincial capital Shenyang, where the deadly fever has so far been contained, since the outbreak on Aug. 3, a spokesman for the bureau said, confirming a report in the state-run People's Daily.

Men, like women, can have post-sex blues

After sex, men can sometimes experience a myriad of confusing negative feelings, a phenomenon called post-coital dysphoria (PCD), which can interfere with relationships, researchers say. The research team analyzed responses from over 1,200 men to an anonymous international online survey that asked whether they had ever experienced symptoms of PCD, which can include tearfulness, sadness or irritability following otherwise satisfactory consensual sex.

Congo deploys experimental Ebola treatment as cases rise

The Democratic Republic of Congo has started using the experimental mAb114 Ebola treatment to counter the latest flare-up of the virus, health officials said on Tuesday, the first time it has been deployed against an active outbreak. Forty-two people are believed to have died from the hemorrhagic fever in Congo's tenth Ebola outbreak since it was discovered in the 1970s.

Chinese vaccine maker made 500,000 substandard baby vaccines: Xinhua

A Chinese drug company produced nearly 500,000 substandard vaccines for babies, roughly double an earlier estimate by authorities investigating a safety scandal, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. China's drug regulator in July accused Changsheng Biotechnology Co Ltd of selling 252,600 doses of ineffective DPT vaccines to inoculate children against diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus.

Traumatic brain injury tied to increased risk of suicide

People who have traumatic brain injuries may be nearly twice as likely to die by suicide as individuals who don't have a history of injuries like concussions and skull fractures, a large Danish study suggests. Researchers examined data on more than 7.4 million people aged 10 years and older living in Denmark from 1980 to 2014. During this period, 567,823 people, or 7.6 percent, had received treatment for a traumatic brain injury.

Trump administration sued over Arkansas' Medicaid work requirements

Advocacy groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the decision by President Donald Trump's administration to allow Arkansas to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients in the state. The lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in federal court in Washington on behalf of three Medicaid recipients in the state, claims that the federal Medicaid law does not allow the administration to approve work requirements.

Monsanto Roundup appeal has uphill climbed on 'junk science' grounds: legal experts

Bayer AG unit Monsanto faces long odds on an appeal blaming an "inflamed" jury and "junk science" for a verdict of $289 million in damages to a man who said the company's Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to some legal experts. Last week's verdict ended the first trial over whether glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, causes cancer. Monsanto, which says decades of scientific studies have shown Roundup and glyphosate are safe, is facing about 5,000 similar lawsuits nationwide.

(With inputs from Reuters)