Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. UK follows EU, U.S. to approve Roche COVID-19 antibody tests

Britain is in talks with Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG to buy an accurate COVID-19 antibody test, following the lead of the European Union and United States, which had already given preliminary approval to the tests. Mass antibody testing with millions of kits is being considered by many countries as a way to speed the reopening of economies devastated by the lockdowns and social distancing measures put in place to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. U.N. warns of global mental health crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic

A mental illness crisis is looming as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the pandemic of COVID-19, United Nations health experts said on Thursday. "The isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil - they all cause or could cause psychological distress," said Devora Kestel, director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) mental health department. U.S. priority on Sanofi virus vaccine would be unacceptable, says France

Giving some countries such as the United States priority access to any coronavirus vaccine developed by Sanofi would be unacceptable, France's junior economy minister said on Thursday, after the firm suggested Americans could get it first. The French drugmaker's chief executive, Paul Hudson, said on Wednesday that vaccine doses produced in the United States could go to U.S. patients first, given the country had supported the research financially. Japan says drugmaker Gilead's COVID-19 treatment remdesivir now in use in hospitals

Japan has begun treating severely ill COVID-19 patients with Gilead Sciences Inc's COVID-19 remdesivir drug, a health ministry official said, just days after giving the drug emergency approval as it seeks to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Ministry official Yasuyuki Sahara said in an e-mail on Thursday that the U.S. firm's treatment has been distributed to hospitals in Japan since May 11 and is being used for patients in intensive care or those on ventilators. CVS Health to launch COVID-19 drive-thru test sites in five U.S. states

CVS Health Corp said on Thursday it would roll out more than 50 COVID-19 testing sites at select pharmacy drive-thru locations in five U.S. states, and expects to have up to 1,000 such locations across the country by the end of the month. The drugstore chain, which has been operating large-scale testing sites since early April, said the new locations will be across Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Coronavirus vaccine possible in about a year, says EU agency

A vaccine to counter the new coronavirus could be approved in about a year in an "optimistic" scenario, a agency which approves medicines for the European Union said on Thursday. As the world rushes to develop a vaccine, the European Union, hard hit by COVID-19, fears it may not have sufficient supplies, especially if a vaccine were developed in the United States or China. China calls U.S. accusation of hacking in COVID-19 research "slander"

China's foreign ministry, asked about China-linked hackers breaking into U.S. COVID-19 research, said China opposed what it called slander from the United States. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian added on Thursday that any action online to sabotage efforts against the disease should be condemned. Trump mobilizing U.S. military to deliver coronavirus vaccine

President Donald Trump is mobilizing the U.S. military to distribute a novel coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available and will focus first on older Americans. "You know it's a massive job to give this vaccine," Trump said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox Business Network. "Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year, we're going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly." Health groups ask India to rescind Gilead's patents for COVID-19 drug remdesivir

Two health advocacy groups have written to the Indian government asking it to rescind patents given to Gilead Sciences for the drug remdesivir so it can be distributed more fairly to coronavirus patients around the world, particularly in poorer nations. Drug patents in India are an important issue as many countries depend on generic drugmakers to make and sell cheaper versions of critical drugs to them. Gilead's three patents in India for remdesivir stem from 2009 when the drug was in development to treat Ebola. Kidney injury seen in more than a third of hospitalized COVID-19 patients: U.S. study

Over a third of patients treated for COVID-19 in a large New York medical system developed acute kidney injury, and nearly 15% required dialysis, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. The study was conducted by a team at Northwell Health, the largest health provider in New York state.