Health News Summary: Doctors offer advice for insomnia; India bans 328 combination drugs

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Bristol-Myers plaque psoriasis drug shows promise in mid-stage trial

Bristol-Myers Squibb said on Wednesday its experimental drug helped reduce the severity of the most common form of psoriasis in a mid-stage trial. The study tested the drug, BMS-986165, in 267 patients with plaque psoriasis, a chronic condition that causes dry, red skin lesions covered with silvery scales.

Doctors offer advice for insomnia

People who have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep may want to seek advice from a doctor and avoid long-term use of sleeping pills, medical experts advise. Good sleep hygiene and a specific kind of talk therapy may help people create good bedtime habits and figure out why they're not sleeping well, the experts say in a new resource for patients published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Egypt prosecutor says e-coli was factor in deaths of British tourists

Egypt's public prosecutor said on Wednesday that e-coli bacteria were a factor in the deaths of two British tourists in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada last month. The prosecutor said John Cooper, 69, was suffering from health problems but that e-coli caused gastroenteritis and heart failure which killed him. Cooper's wife Susan, 63, was also likely to have been affected by e-coli and died of Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a blood ailment.

EU officials clash with Chinese firm on drug factory inspection

European medicines regulators have issued a notice that an ingredient for a generic brain cancer drug made in China does not meet manufacturing standards, after inspectors were refused entry to a factory run by Jiangsu Yew Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. The incident, reported in a notice published this week on a database maintained by the European Medicines Agency, is the latest example of regulatory problems with bulk pharmaceutical substances manufactured in China. (Click http://eudragmdp.ema.europa.eu/inspections/gmpc/searchGMPNonCompliance.do?ctrl=searchGMPNCResultControlList&action=Drilldown&param=49983 for the notice)

Exclusive: Brazil prosecutors seek leniency talks with BRF in food fraud probe

Brazilian federal prosecutors probing whether chicken processor BRF SA and certain laboratories colluded to cheat on food safety tests are seeking cooperation from the firms in return for more lenient penalties, a federal prosecutor told Reuters in an interview. Prosecutors had found "grave irregularities" and would demand that the companies carry out a root-and-branch restructure as part of any leniency deal, federal prosecutor Lyana Helena Joppert Kalluf said last week.

India bans 328 combination drugs in setback for pharma companies

The Indian government has banned 328 combination drugs in a blow to both domestic and foreign pharmaceutical firms, but the ban has been cheered by health activists worried about growing antibiotic resistance due to the misuse of medicines. The Indian government had in 2016 banned about 350 such drugs, referred to as fixed-dose combinations (FDCs), but the industry mounted various legal challenges that prompted the Supreme Court to call for a review by an advisory board.

China bans feeding of food waste to hogs in provinces with African swine fever

China has banned the use of food waste as pig feed in provinces that have reported African swine fever outbreaks as well as neighboring regions, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday, the latest measure to try to halt the spread of the disease. The use of pig blood as a raw material in producing feed for pigs has also been banned, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement online.

FDA proposed crackdown on flavored e-cigs puts Juul on notice

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering a ban on flavored e-cigarettes from Juul Labs and other companies as it grapples with an "epidemic" of youth e-cigarette use that threatens to create a new generation of nicotine addicts, the agency's head said on Wednesday. In a speech at FDA headquarters, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency would also revisit a policy that extended the dates for some manufacturers of flavored e-cigarettes to get FDA approval before selling their products. That could lead to removal of some major flavored e-cigarette brands, including the popular products made by Juul Labs Inc., if they do not address the issue to the agency's satisfaction.

Zimbabwe police ban public gatherings in capital to contain cholera outbreak

Zimbabwe's police on Wednesday issued a ban on all public gatherings and illegal food vending to control the spread of cholera, which has killed 21 people in the capital Harare. The ban was announced a day after the government declared the disease an emergency.

Half of Europe's clinical trials fail to report results despite EU rule

Almost half of all European-registered clinical trials - in which scientists test drug treatments, interventions or therapies in humans - have breached EU rules by failing to report results, according to an analysis published on Thursday. The analysis also found that while most major pharmaceutical companies are coming close to complying with EU reporting rules for trials in people, most major academic institutes are not.