Health News Roundup: J&J looks at job cuts despite weathering inflation impact; Moderna signs deal on variant-adapted COVID shots for world's poorest and more

Biden signed three documents on biodefense security aimed at establishing a strategy and an implementation plan to gird for the next time a virus spreads widely in the United States. Indonesia says 74 children have died from acute kidney injury this year More than 70 children in Indonesia have died from acute kidney injury (AKI) since January this year, a health ministry official said on Wednesday, as a team of experts investigates the spike in cases.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

J&J looks at job cuts despite weathering inflation impact

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday posted better than expected third-quarter earnings on strong demand for its cancer drug Darzalex, but said it may still cut some jobs as it contends with inflationary pressure and challenges created by the strong dollar. J&J Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said the U.S. healthcare conglomerate is looking at "right sizing" itself, particularly as it moves from being a three-segment business to a two segment business through the spinoff of its consumer unit.

Moderna signs deal on variant-adapted COVID shots for world's poorest

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) has agreed to provide its new variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine to the global scheme aiming to deliver shots to the world's poorest people. The biotech company and vaccine alliance GAVI will cancel their existing supply deal for vaccines based on the original coronavirus strain. Instead, Moderna will supply up to 100 million doses of its new, variant-adapted vaccines at its lowest available price from 2023.

New Mexico presses opioid case vs Walgreens after settling with Walmart, Kroger

The state of New Mexico on Tuesday urged a judge to hold Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc responsible for fueling the opioid crisis in the state, delivering a closing argument in the latest of several trials around the country against the pharmacy chain.

"The state has proven that the opioid crisis existing in New Mexico was a foreseeable consequence of Walgreens' conduct," Dan Alberstone, a lawyer for the state, told Judge Francis Matthew in the 1st Judicial Circuit of New Mexico in Santa Fe.

Coronavirus pandemic prompts Biden to focus on biological threats

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday set in motion a plan to counter biological threats and prepare for the next pandemic after the COVID-19 coronavirus caused more than 1 million deaths in the United States. Biden signed three documents on biodefense security aimed at establishing a strategy and an implementation plan to gird for the next time a virus spreads widely in the United States.

Indonesia says 74 children have died from acute kidney injury this year

More than 70 children in Indonesia have died from acute kidney injury (AKI) since January this year, a health ministry official said on Wednesday, as a team of experts investigates the spike in cases. The development comes as health officials in Gambia said nearly 70 children had died from AKI after taking a locally sold paracetamol syrup used to treat fever.

Roche exec says Biogen Alzheimer's data was reassuring

A Roche executive said on Tuesday that positive trial data on an Alzheimer's disease drug candidate by rival Biogen was encouraging for companies such as Roche also pursuing amyloid beta proteins as a drug target. "Before that readout, there was quite a raging debate, as to whether targeting an amyloid beta does anything whatsoever to clinical signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's. After that data that debate has to take on a different character and it reassures us in the validity of the pathway," the head of Roche's pharma unit Bill Anderson said in an analyst call.

U.S. nears record poultry deaths from bird flu; virus type complicates fight

A near-record number of U.S. chickens and turkeys have died in this year's outbreak of avian flu, as a different form of the virus than farmers battled before has infected more wild birds that then transmit the disease, officials said. More than 47 million birds have died due to infections and cullings. This has spurred export bans, lowered egg and turkey production, and contributed to record prices of the staples ahead of the U.S. holiday season. The outbreak exacerbates economic pain for consumers grappling with soaring inflation.

U.S. sends experimental antibody, antiviral drug to Uganda for Ebola outbreak

The United States sent Gilead Sciences' redeliver and Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc's experimental Ebola antibody drug MBP134 to Uganda last week to help safeguard healthcare workers responding to an outbreak that has infected 60 people and killed 44, U.S. government sources told Reuters. There are currently no proven vaccines or treatments for the Sudan species of Ebola, one of four known Ebola viruses to cause hemorrhagic fever in humans. The outbreak confirmed by the Ugandan health ministry on Sept. 20 is the largest of the Sudan species since 2000.

Indonesia says 99 children have died from acute kidney injury this year

Almost 100 children in Indonesia have died from acute kidney injury this year, a health ministry official told reporters on Wednesday. Health ministry spokesman Muhammad Syahril said that officials had identified 206 cases up to Oct. 18, with 99 fatalities recorded.

Addiction drug shows promise lifting long COVID brain fog, fatigue

Lauren Nichols, a 34-year-old logistics expert for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Boston, has been suffering from impaired thinking and focus, fatigue, seizures, headache and pain since her COVID-19 infection in the spring of 2020. Last June, her doctor suggested low doses of naltrexone, a generic drug typically used to treat alcohol and opioid addiction. After more than two years of living in "a thick, foggy cloud," she said, "I can actually think clearly." Researchers chasing long COVID cures are eager to learn whether the drug can offer similar benefits to millions suffering from pain, fatigue and brain fog months after a coronavirus infection. The drug has been used with some success to treat a similar complex, a post-infectious syndrome marked by cognitive deficits and overwhelming fatigue called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Drawing on its use in ME/CFS and a handful of long COVID pilot studies, there are now at least four clinical trials planned to test naltrexone in hundreds of patients with long COVID, according to a Reuters review of Clinicaltrials.gov and interviews with 12 ME/CFS and long COVID researchers. It is also on the short list of treatments to be tested in the U.S. National Institutes of Health's $1 billion RECOVER Initiative, which aims to uncover underlying causes and find treatments for long COVID, advisers to the trial told Reuters.