Health News Roundup: Alternative medicine to help ease psoriasis, Juul files complaints and lot more


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 06-10-2018 10:55 IST | Created: 06-10-2018 10:28 IST
Health News Roundup: Alternative medicine to help ease psoriasis, Juul files complaints and lot more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Alternative medicine might help ease psoriasis symptoms

Complementary and alternative medicine approaches might help relieve psoriasis symptoms, a research review suggests. Such approaches included acupuncture, meditation, and herbal remedies like indigo naturals or curcumin, according to the authors of the review.

Akcea Therapeutics genetic disease treatment gets FDA approval

Akcea Therapeutics Inc said on Friday its treatment, developed along with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, which targets a rare genetic disease was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Akcea's once-weekly injection, Tegsedi, treats hereditary ATTR amyloidosis patients with polyneuropathy.

E-cigarette maker Juul files complaints against 'copycat products'

Juul Labs, the e-cigarette maker at the heart of a U.S. crackdown on youth vaping, has filed patent infringement complaints in the United States and Europe against what it said were copycat rivals. The complaints follow the seizure this week by U.S. health regulators of more than 1,000 pages of documents from Juul Labs about its sales and marketing practices, as they investigate growing e-cigarette use among young people that threatens to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

Tech breakthrough offers an early warning system for heart attacks

A new method of analyzing images from CT scans can predict which patients are at risk of a heart attack years before it occurs, researchers say. The technology, developed by teams at Oxford University and institutions in Germany and the United States, uses algorithms to examine the fat surrounding coronary arteries as it shows up on computed tomography (CT) heart scans.

Blood sugar control tied to long-term brain health with type 1 diabetes

People with type 1 diabetes who are able to maintain good blood sugar control may reduce their long-term risk of developing dementia, a U.S. study suggests. Among more than 3,400 type 1 diabetes patients in a large healthcare system, those with average blood glucose readings near the normal range more than half of the time were 45 per cent less likely to develop dementia than those whose readings were routinely higher, the study team reports in Diabetes Care.

USITC to investigate Resmed for alleged patent infringement

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) said on Friday it would investigate California-based Resmed Inc for a patent infringement complaint related to sleep apnea mask systems. The investigation is based on a complaint by New Zealand medical device maker Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the commission said in a statement.

U.S. FDA expands approval of Roche haemophilia drug

Roche on Thursday said U.S. regulators approved expanded use of its drug Hemlibra to include almost all patients with haemophilia A, as the Swiss drugmaker increases its focus on diseases beyond cancer to help replace revenue from older products that have lost patent protection. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Hemlibra to treat adults, children and newborns with the genetic disorder in which blood does not clot properly, putting them at risk of dangerous bleeding.

JBS sued by Kentucky woman over ground beef in salmonella recall

A Kentucky woman is suing the U.S. arm of Brazil's JBS SA, alleging she was hospitalized after consuming ground beef produced by the company that was tainted with Salmonella, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in Arizona state court. The lawsuit comes one day after the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that JBS Tolleson Inc was voluntarily pulling 6.5 million pounds of ground beef and other raw beef products that had been shipped to stores across the country. JBS Tolleson is part of JBS USA, the U.S. arm of the world's largest meatpacking company.

EMA committee recommends restrictions on fluoroquinolone, quinolone antibiotics

The European Medicines Agency's risk assessment committee has recommended restrictions on the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics fluoroquinolone and quinolone following a review of side effects, the EMA said on Friday. The side effects were reported to be "disabling and potentially long-lasting", though very rare, the EMA said.

Lilly's diabetes drug data impresses, hurts rival Novo's shares

Eli Lilly and Co said on Thursday its new two-in-one diabetes drug was successful in lowering blood sugar and reducing weight, sending its shares to a record high and weighing on those of arch-rival Novo Nordisk. The novel drug targets two key gut hormones at the same time and could pose a threat to currently available single-hormone drugs, which form a large and growing part of Novo's business.

(With inputs from agencies.)

Give Feedback