Health News Roundup: BioNTech, Pfizer ask U.S. court for clearance over patent dispute with CureVac; Studies find more clues to potential cause of severe hepatitis cases in children and more

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said it would give up to $375,000 to the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to develop standard tools to assess the strength and duration of immune responses generated by current vaccines, and for tests used to detect monkeypox antibody levels. WHO official: we believe monkeypox outbreak can be stopped The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak can be stopped, an official from the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

BioNTech, Pfizer ask U.S. court for clearance over patent dispute with CureVac

COVID-19 vaccine maker Biontech said on Tuesday that it and partner Pfizer have filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, seeking a judgment that they did not infringe U.S. patents held by rival CureVac. CureVac earlier this month filed a patent lawsuit in Germany against BioNTech over its use of mRNA technology and did not rule out further legal action against BioNTech's partner Pfizer or rival mRNA vaccine maker Moderna.

Studies find more clues to potential cause of severe hepatitis cases in children

The recent rise in cases of acute hepatitis among children is likely linked to a common childhood virus, two independent studies from British researchers have suggested. Countries across the world began reporting cases of severe liver inflammation, or hepatitis of unknown origin, in children in April 2022.

Factbox-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

Parts of the Asia-Pacific continue to face a surge in COVID-19 cases, with Shenzhen telling major companies to set up "closed-loop" systems, while in Australia, hospitalisations hit a record high for a second straight day. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

British agencies win CEPI funds to develop standard monkeypox tools

British health agencies have secured funding to develop a standardised approach to test the performance of vaccines being used or in development against monkeypox, days after the World Health Organization (WHO) labelled the growing outbreak a global health emergency. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said it would give up to $375,000 to the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to develop standard tools to assess the strength and duration of immune responses generated by current vaccines, and for tests used to detect monkeypox antibody levels.

WHO official: we believe monkeypox outbreak can be stopped

The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak can be stopped, an official from the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. "We do at this moment still believe that this outbreak of monkeypox can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups but time is going by and we all need to pull together to make that happen," Rosamund Lewis, WHO Technical Lead on Monkeypox, told reporters.

Nigerian woman recycles prosthesis so amputee children walk again

Nigerian mother of two Crystal Chigbu wept for days after her daughter was born with a rare limb condition that doctors said needed an amputation. She was not so sure. But as her daughter Beulah grew and started asking why she could not walk like her friends, the parents had to make the hard decision to amputate the girl's leg and fit her with a prosthesis.

U.S. weighs declaring monkeypox a health emergency -Washington Post

The Biden administration is weighing whether to declare the monkeypox outbreak in the country a public health emergency, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The government is also planning to name a White House coordinator to oversee the country's response to the outbreak, according to the report.

Australia's COVID hospital admissions, deaths rise as variant surges

Hospital admissions for COVID-19 in Australia have reached a new high for a second straight day, data showed on Tuesday, while the daily death toll rose to its second-highest as an outbreak fuelled by a coronavirus sub-variant sweeps the country. Nearly 5,600 patients infected with COVID are in hospital while 100 new deaths were reported, just short of a record 102 deaths on Saturday.

Pfizer loses U.S. appeal over co-pays for heart failure patients

A federal appeals court on Monday rejected Pfizer Inc's challenge to a U.S. anti-kickback law the drugmaker said prevented it from helping heart failure patients, many with low incomes, afford medicine that cost $225,000 per year. A unanimous three-judge panel of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Pfizer's effort to directly cover co-pays for patients taking its Vyndaqel and Vyndamax drugs.

Explainer-How worried should we be about the monkeypox global health emergency?

The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak constitutes a global health emergency, the World Health Organization's highest alert level, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared on Saturday. First identified in monkeys, the virus is transmitted chiefly through close contact with an infected person. Until this year, the viral disease has rarely spread outside Africa where it is endemic.

(With inputs from agencies.)