Health News Roundup: Novartis fails again to reuse anti-inflammatory drug to treat lung cancer; Novavax seeks U.S. authorization for COVID vaccine booster and more

Bourla, 60, said he had started a course of the company's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, and was isolating and following all public health precautions. Abortion bans limit training options for some future U.S. physicians University of Oklahoma medical student Ian Peake spent four years shadowing doctors at a Tulsa abortion clinic because his school didn't offer courses on abortion or provide any training.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 15-08-2022 18:49 IST | Created: 15-08-2022 18:33 IST
Health News Roundup: Novartis fails again to reuse anti-inflammatory drug to treat lung cancer; Novavax seeks U.S. authorization for COVID vaccine booster and more
Representative image Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Novartis fails again to reuse anti-inflammatory drug to treat lung cancer

Efforts by Novartis to show that an established anti-inflammatory drug could also suppress cancer growth were dealt a final blow when a third big lung cancer trial failed to produce the desired results. The Swiss drugmaker said on Monday its canakinumab drug did not slow the progression of non-small cell lung cancer in a late-stage trial, when given to prevent relapse in patients that were diagnosed early enough for tumour-removal surgery.

Novavax seeks U.S. authorization for COVID vaccine booster

Novavax Inc said on Monday it had submitted an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking authorization for booster doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. vaccine maker said it was seeking authorization for use of the booster dose after two doses of its own vaccine, and as a mix-and-match booster after other vaccines.

Pfizer CEO Bourla shows mild symptoms after testing positive for COVID

Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said on Monday he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing very mild symptoms. Bourla, 60, said he had started a course of the company's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, and was isolating and following all public health precautions.

Abortion bans limit training options for some future U.S. physicians

University of Oklahoma medical student Ian Peake spent four years shadowing doctors at a Tulsa abortion clinic because his school didn't offer courses on abortion or provide any training. But the Tulsa Women's Clinic stopped abortion services in May when Oklahoma enacted a near-total ban, and the provider closed for good after the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional abortion protections in June. Peake, 33, now had no local options to learn about abortion.

UK first to approve Omicron COVID shot with Moderna go-ahead

Britain, the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine in late 2020, has now also given the first green light to a variant-adapted shot that targets both the original and Omicron version of the virus. The UK medicines regulator (MHRA) gave the so-called bivalent vaccine made by U.S. drug company Moderna conditional approval as a booster for adults on Monday.

Shanghai to reopen all schools on Sept. 1 as lockdown fears persist

China's financial hub Shanghai said on Sunday it would reopen all schools including kindergartens, and primary and middle schools on Sept. 1 after months of COVID-19 closures. The city will require all teachers and students to take nucleic acid tests for the coronavirus every day before leaving campus, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission said.

Zimbabwe blames measles surge on sect gatherings after 80 children die

A measles outbreak has killed 80 children in Zimbabwe since April, the ministry of health has said, blaming church sect gatherings for the surge. In a statement seen by Reuters on Sunday, the ministry said the outbreak had now spread nationwide, with a case fatality rate of 6.9%.

Newly-launched U.S. drugs head toward record-high prices in 2022

Drugmakers are launching new medicines at record-high prices this year, a Reuters analysis has found, highlighting their pricing power even as Congress moves to cut the $500 billion-plus annual bill for prescription drugs in the United States. At the same time, some pharmaceutical manufacturers are disclosing less information about the pricing of those treatments, which have come under greater scrutiny in recent years, Reuters found. "In the U.S. we allow drug manufacturers to freely set prices for all brand-name drugs," Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told Reuters.

AstraZeneca says data confirms Enhertu benefit in breast cancer patients

AstraZeneca said a late-stage trial had confirmed the benefit of breast cancer drug Enhertu in patients with an advanced form of the disease who had been previously treated with another therapy. In a 600-patient trial called DESTINY-Breast02, Enhertu -developed with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo - was compared against a treatment pre-determined by physicians in people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Explainer - Why has polio been found in London, New York and Jerusalem, and how dangerous is it?

Polio, a deadly disease that used to paralyze tens of thousands of children every year, is spreading in London, New York and Jerusalem for the first time in decades, spurring catch-up vaccination campaigns. DREADED DISEASE

(With inputs from agencies.)

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