Health News Roundup: Canada gets Biomerieux formula for virus testing chemicals; WHO to launch initiative to share COVID-19 drugs and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Exclusive: Canada gets Biomerieux formula for free to produce virus testing chemicals

A key supplier of the chemicals needed to test for coronavirus, France's Biomérieux, has given its proprietary formula to the Canadian government for free so its national lab can try to manufacture badly-needed test kits on its own, according to federal officials and a note to customers obtained by Reuters. The unusual deal shows Ottawa's determination to scale up testing, a key step towards relaxing strict public health measures that have disrupted daily life and tanked economies around the world.

WHO to launch initiative to share COVID-19 drugs, tests and vaccines: statement

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it would announce a "landmark collaboration" on Friday to speed development, production and the use of safe, effective drugs, tests and vaccines to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19. In a brief statement issued on Thursday, the Geneva-based agency said the initiative being announced with partners aims to make technologies against the disease "accessible to everyone who needs them, worldwide", but gave no details.

'We are failing our grandparents' Canada's Trudeau says as COVID-19 hammers nursing homes

Canada is failing its seniors as officials struggle to contain fatal outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in long-term care homes across the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday. Long-term care homes in Canada, whose residents are more vulnerable to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, have been hard-hit. In Canada, almost half of the country's total deaths have been in nursing homes.

Special Report: As virus advances, doctors rethink rush to ventilate

When he was diagnosed with COVID-19, Andre Bergmann knew exactly where he wanted to be treated: the Bethanien hospital lung clinic in Moers, near his home in northwestern Germany. The clinic is known for its reluctance to put patients with breathing difficulties on mechanical ventilators - the kind that involve tubes down the throat.

Blood-pressure drugs are in the crosshairs of COVID-19 research

Scientists are baffled by how the coronavirus attacks the body - killing many patients while barely affecting others. But some are tantalized by a clue: A disproportionate number of patients hospitalized by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have high blood pressure. Theories about why the condition makes them more vulnerable – and what patients should do about it – have sparked a fierce debate among scientists over the impact of widely prescribed blood-pressure drugs.

Gilead disputes report that its drug flopped in coronavirus trial

A closely-watched Gilead Sciences Inc experimental antiviral drug failed to help patients with severe COVID-19 in a clinical trial conducted in China, but the drugmaker said the study's results were inconclusive because it was terminated early. Gilead shares fell more than 4% after the data was inadvertently released and first reported by the Financial Times. It comes days after another report detailed rapid recovery in fever and respiratory symptoms in some patients with COVID-19 - the sometimes deadly respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus - who were treated with remdesivir at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital.

New York survey suggests 2.7 million in state may have coronavirus antibodies

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday a preliminary survey found that nearly 14% tested positive for antibodies against the novel coronavirus, suggesting that as many as 2.7 million New Yorkers may have been infected with the disease. While noting the sample size of 3,000 people and other limitations of the survey, Cuomo said the implied fatality rate of 0.5 percent of those infected by COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, was lower than some experts feared.

Texas to allow abortions amid pandemic after court fight

Texas will allow abortions to resume following a legal battle over whether the Republican-governed state could enact a near-total ban on the procedure to preserve supplies of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic. The state in a filing late on Wednesday told a federal judge in Austin, Texas, that a new executive order by Republican Governor Greg Abbott regarding elective medical procedures provided exemptions that would allow abortions to not be postponed.

Doctors launch legal challenge to UK government over protective kit

Two British doctors who have been exposed to COVID-19 patients have launched a legal challenge against the government over what they say is a lack of protective kit and unclear guidance on when and how it should be used. The issue of personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and nurses on the front line of the new coronavirus outbreak is one that has dogged the government, with persistent reports that there is not enough kit and that some of it is not good enough.

Your COVID-19 healthcare questions, answered

Several months into the coronavirus pandemic, information about COVID-19 continues to change rapidly and many questions about the virus remain unanswered. As part of our weekly #AskReuters Twitter chat series, Reuters invited a group of healthcare experts to discuss what they have learned so far.