Health News Roundup: U.S. FDA says Empowered Diagnostics recalling COVID-19 tests; Pfizer COVID pill gets final approval from European Commission and more

Children pet the jaguars and play with their paws, stroke the cool, moist skin of snakes and give milk to a zebu cow as part of a program aimed at helping those with special needs overcome fears, zookeepers said. Merck's COVID-19 pill active against Omicron in lab studies Merck & Co Inc and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said on Friday six lab studies showed their experimental oral COVID-19 drug molnupiravir was active against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Easier to produce COVID vaccine shows promise in trials; nasal spray vaccine booster works in mice

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. New COVID-19 vaccine could be manufactured like flu shots

U.S. FDA says Empowered Diagnostics recalling COVID-19 tests

Empowered Diagnostics LLC is recalling its COVID-19 tests as they have not been cleared for use in the United States and could potentially lead to false results, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday. The regulator has labeled the recall of the CovClear COVID-19 rapid antigen test and the ImmunoPass COVID-19 neutralizing antibody rapid test as Class 1, or the most serious type of recall.

Pfizer COVID pill gets final approval from European Commission

The European Commission on Friday approved Pfizer's antiviral pill for COVID-19 a day after the region's health regulator endorsed the tablet, a move that will ensure wide availability of the promising treatment to EU member states. The final go-ahead by the executive body of the European Union (EU) was tweeted by EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides as the region is beefing up its defences against the coronavirus amid the rapid spread of the new Omicron variant.

Russia's COVID deaths pass 700,000

Russia's COVID-19 deaths passed the 700,000 mark on Friday, Reuters calculations based on new data from the Rosstat state statistics service showed. Rosstat said on Friday that 54,630 people died from COVID or related causes in December, after monthly coronavirus deaths hit a record high of nearly 90,000 in November and made Russia a country with the second highest number of deaths in the world after the United States.

Cuban children with disabilities pet jaguars and snakes for therapy

Baby jaguars and an intricately colored endemic boa known as the 'maja' are among the exotic animals at Cuba's national zoo that parents and teachers say provide unusually effective therapy to children with special needs. Children pet the jaguars and play with their paws, stroke the cool, moist skin of snakes and give milk to a zebu cow as part of a program aimed at helping those with special needs overcome fears, zookeepers said.

Merck's COVID-19 pill active against Omicron in lab studies

Merck & Co Inc and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said on Friday six lab studies showed their experimental oral COVID-19 drug molnupiravir was active against the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The data evaluated the antiviral activity of molnupiravir and other COVID-19 antiviral agents against COVID-19 variants of concern. Molnupiravir is yet to be studied against Omicron in human studies, the companies said.

Regeneron, Sanofi withdraw FDA application for cancer drug's expanded use

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and its partner Sanofi voluntarily withdrew their application with the U.S. drug regulator for the expanded use of their anti-cancer drug Libtayo in patients with advanced cervical cancer. The application for the monoclonal antibody as the second-line of treatment in the patients was withdrawn "after the companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were not able to align on certain post-marketing studies", the companies said on Friday.

Canada Omicron infections past peak, hospitalizations rising- health official

Canada has moved past the worst of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on some parameters, but Canadians still need to be prudent as hospitalizations were continuing to rise, the country's top health official said Friday. Omicron infections started spreading rapidly last month, taking over the dominant variant designation from Delta and forcing authorities to impose restrictions on businesses and social gatherings.

Omicron subtype has apparent transmission advantage - UKHSA

The BA.2 subtype of the Omicron coronavirus variant appears to have a substantial growth advantage over the currently predominant BA.1 type, Britain's UK Health Security Agency said on Friday. UKHSA said that there was an increased growth rate of BA.2 compared with BA.1 in all regions of England where there were enough cases to compare them, and that "the apparent growth advantage is currently substantial".

Britain to start rolling out Pfizer COVID pill next month

Britain will start rolling out Pfizer's COVID-19 pill to vulnerable people next month, the health ministry said on Friday, targeting the treatment at people with compromised immune systems for whom the vaccine can be less effective. The health ministry said that Pfizer's antiviral treatment Paxlovid, a combination of Pfizer's pill with an older antiviral ritonavir, will be made available to thousands of people from Feb. 10.