Health News Roundup: Humira patent disputes, lung cancer study goal, swine fever

Abbvie settles Humira patent disputes with Novartis unit

Abbvie Inc said on Thursday it settled all patent disputes with Novartis AG, granting it a non-exclusive license to manufacture and sell a copycat version of the blockbuster drug, Humira. Abbvie, however, did not disclose details regarding the royalties it will receive from Novartis generics unit, Sandoz, as part of the agreement.

Bristol-Myers' Opdivo fails to meet lung cancer study goal

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said on Friday that its blockbuster cancer drug Opdivo failed to meet the main goal in a late-stage trial on patients with a type of lung cancer, whose condition had relapsed after chemotherapy. The drug failed to extend overall survival in patients suffering from small cell lung cancer, an aggressive form of the disease when compared to patients already on chemotherapy.

Fearful of swine fever, France to put up a fence on the Belgian border

France will put up fencing along its border with Belgium to prevent wild boars spreading African swine fever, a virulent livestock disease that could disrupt Europe's pig industry. France has been on alert for African swine fever since Belgium detected the virus last month among wild boars a few kilometres from the French border.

Jury clears J&J of liability in New Jersey talc cancer case

A New Jersey jury on Thursday cleared Johnson & Johnson of liability in a case involving a woman who alleged that the company's talc-based products, including its baby powder, contain asbestos and caused her cancer. After less than a day of deliberations, the jury in New Brunswick, New Jersey rejected claims by Rosalind Henry and her husband, who had alleged that Henry's mesothelioma, cancer associated with asbestos exposure, was caused by the company's talc products.

C-section births rise rapidly to more than 20 per cent worldwide

Rates of caesarean section births almost doubled between 2000 and 2015 – from 12 to 21 per cent worldwide - new research has found, with the life-saving surgery unavailable to many women in poor countries while often over-used in richer ones. The research, published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday, found that 60 per cent of countries overuse C-sections and 25 per cent under-use them, suggesting that recommendations for their use in cases of medical need are widely ignored.

The public seems to know the value of clinical trials, but not how they work

Patients, their families and friends may see clinical trial research as important, yet they don't know much about the research process and see trial participation as burdensome, a new study suggests. About 85 per cent of respondents in the new study said clinical research is important to developing new drugs, and 90 per cent thought participating in a trial is generally safe. But only 18 per cent had actually done so, researchers report in JAMA Network Open.

African swine fever reaches Tianjin as China reports new outbreaks

China's agriculture ministry said on Friday an outbreak of African swine fever had been confirmed in Tianjin, the first to be reported in the municipality located just southeast of Beijing. The fever was found on a farm that had 639 pigs, with 292 infected and 189 dying of the disease, according to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, which earlier on Friday reported a fourth outbreak this week in northeastern China's Liaoning province.

WHO sees Congo's Ebola outbreak lasting 3-4 months at least

Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak is expected to last several months and could spread to Uganda or Rwanda, which are well prepared but have not approved the use of a vaccine, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The most concerning area is the city of Beni in Congo's North Kivu province where dozens of people who may have been exposed to the deadly disease are hiding from health workers, emergency response chief Peter Salama said.

Medtronic disables pacemaker programmer updates over hack concern

Medical device maker Medtronic Plc has disabled internet updates for some 34,000 CareLink programming devices that healthcare providers around the world use to access implanted pacemakers, saying the system was vulnerable to cyber attacks. The company said it knows of no cases where the vulnerability had been exploited by hackers in a letter sent to physicians this week, which was labelled "urgent medical device correction."

South Africa's Tiger Brands re-opens processing facility after a listeria outbreak

Tiger Brands said on Friday it had re-opened a facility that was closed after South Africa's biggest food producer was implicated in the world's largest outbreak of listeria which killed more than 200 people. The health department recalled processed meat products known as "polony" and closed some processing facilities after the source of the outbreak was traced to a factory owned by Tiger Brands unit Enterprise Foods in March.

(With inputs from Reuters)