Health News Roundup: Bard convinces U.S. appeals court to revive medical-injection device patents; U.S. to select 10 costliest drugs for Medicare pricing negotiation and more

The drug, which would be sold under the brand name Syfovre, slowed down the progression of the eye disease geographic atrophy (GA), becoming the only FDA-approved treatment for the disorder. Sickly sea lion is Chile's first bird flu case in marine mammal Chilean health authorities have detected the country's first case of highly pathogenic bird flu (HPAI) in a marine mammal after a 250-kilogram sea lion was founded stranded on a northern beach with respiratory problems.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Bard convinces U.S. appeals court to revive medical-injection device patents

Becton Dickinson's C.R. Bard Inc on Friday won a ruling from a U.S. appeals court reinstating three patents related to its PowerPort devices for delivering repeated medical injections. The decision from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revives a long-running infringement lawsuit Bard brought against Pennsylvania-based Medical Components Inc, which makes competing devices.

U.S. to select 10 costliest drugs for Medicare pricing negotiation

The U.S. government will select the 10 costliest prescription medicines to Medicare for negotiating prices with drugmakers starting early next year, the program's top official said on Friday. President Joe Biden in August signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, allowing the federal Medicare health plan for people age 65 and older and the disabled to negotiate prices on some of its most costly drugs.

Factbox-Abortion battles in U.S. state capitals to watch in 2023

Battles over abortion are heating up in state capitols across the United States as lawmakers wrestle with how much to restrict or expand access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Here is a snapshot of state legislation seeking to ban or protect abortion access in 2023.

U.S. FDA approves Travere Therapeutics kidney disorder drug

Travere Therapeutics said on Friday the U.S. health regulator has granted accelerated approval to its drug to treat a type of chronic kidney disease, IgAN, in adults with a high risk of advancing to kidney failure. Shares of the drugmaker were up 2.8% at $18.32 after market

Pfizer, Valneva to stop testing Lyme disease vaccine in some U.S. patients

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc and France's Valneva will stop testing a Lyme disease vaccine in roughly half of U.S. patients in a late-stage study, the companies said, citing a breach of clinical trial guidelines by a third-party contractor. The joint statement on Friday did not disclose the number of patients affected but analysts at brokerage Rx Securities estimated it could impact about 2,000 participants.

Bird flu alarm drives world towards once-shunned vaccines

French duck farmer Herve Dupouy has culled his flock four times since 2015 to stop the spread of bird flu but as a wave of deadly outbreaks nears his farm once again, he says it's time to accept a solution once considered taboo: vaccination. "The goal is that our animals don't fall ill and that they don't spread the virus," Dupouy said on his farm in Castelneu-Tursan in southwestern France. "Our job as farmers is not to gather dead animals."

Argentina reports new cases of bird flu in its territory

Argentina confirmed on Saturday two new cases of bird flu detected in wild birds, three days after reporting the first findings of the disease in the South American region. "We have detected a second case in two wild ducks found dead in the province of Cordoba," the Argentine National Service of Health and Agrifood Quality (SENASA) of the southern country said on Twitter.

Apellis Pharma's eye-disorder drug gets FDA approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc's drug to treat an advanced eye disorder that is one of the leading causes of blindness globally, the company said on Friday. The drug, which would be sold under the brand name Syfovre, slowed down the progression of the eye disease geographic atrophy (GA), becoming the only FDA-approved treatment for the disorder.

Sickly sea lion is Chile's first bird flu case in marine mammal

Chilean health authorities have detected the country's first case of highly pathogenic bird flu (HPAI) in a marine mammal after a 250-kilogram sea lion was founded stranded on a northern beach with respiratory problems. "This is the first case of a marine mammal affected by this virus in Chile," the country's fisheries and aquaculture agency Sernapesca said late on Thursday, after the case was detected in the northern region of Antofagasta.