Health News Roundup: US adds units of China's BGI, Inspur to trade blacklist; More than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035 - report and more

The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone pills, including by mail, provided they are certified under special safety rules for the drug. U.S. FDA panel to review expanded use of Merck-AstraZeneca's cancer drug Merck & Co Inc and British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC said on Thursday that an independent committee of advisers to the U.S. health regulator will review the companies' application for the expanded use of their drug Lynparza to treat an advanced form of prostate cancer.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

US adds units of China's BGI, Inspur to trade blacklist

The Biden administration on Thursday added 37 companies to a trade blacklist, including units of Chinese genetics company BGI and Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur, in a move that promises to further ratchet up tensions with Beijing. The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, added BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions (Hongkong), over allegations that the units pose a "significant risk" to contributing to Chinese government surveillance.

More than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035 - report

More than half of the world's population will be overweight or obese by 2035 without significant action, according to a new report. The World Obesity Federation's 2023 atlas predicts that 51% of the world, or more than 4 billion people, will be obese or overweight within the next 12 years.

How China's new No.2 hastened the end of Xi's zero-COVID policy

As unprecedented protests against China's zero-COVID policies escalated in November, Li Qiang, the man recently elevated to No.2 on the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, seized the moment. Top Chinese officials and medical experts had been quietly formulating plans over the preceding weeks to dismantle President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID strategy and gradually reopen the country towards the end of 2022, with the aim of declaring a return to normality in March, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Walgreens won't dispense abortion pills in some Republican states

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc on Thursday said it will not dispense abortion pills in the states of 20 Republican attorneys general who have told the pharmacy chain it risked breaking the law should it dispense them to the states by mail. The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone pills, including by mail, provided they are certified under special safety rules for the drug.

U.S. FDA panel to review expanded use of Merck AstraZeneca's cancer drug

Merck & Co Inc and British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC said on Thursday that an independent committee of advisers to the U.S. health regulator will review the companies' application for the expanded use of their drug Lynparza to treat an advanced form of prostate cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) committee is scheduled to meet on April 28. The companies' are seeking approval of the drug Lynparza in combination with other medications – abiraterone and prednisone or prednisolone – for the treatment of a type of treatment-resistant prostate cancer in adult patients.

Mad cow case in Brazil dubbed 'atypical' after export bans applied

A confirmed case of mad cow disease in Brazil discovered last month is "atypical," the agriculture ministry said on Thursday, adding it will work to lift beef export suspensions swiftly enacted by several countries in Asia. The suspension on exports represents a major risk for Brazil's key livestock sector, one of the world's largest.

Viatris warns it will stop selling essential drugs in UK without changes to drug pricing agreement

Drugmaker Viatris Inc warned on Thursday that it will stop selling some essential medicines in the UK that are already in short supply unless the British government makes changes to its voluntary medicines pricing agreement. The programme, adopted in 2019, is designed to make branded drugs more affordable for the National Health Service (NHS) by capping annual increases in NHS drug spending at 2%.

US CDC concludes cough syrups likely to blame for children's deaths in Gambia, report shows

Contaminated cough and paracetamol syrups imported into Gambia almost certainly caused the deaths of 66 children due to acute kidney injury, according to an investigation led by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Gambian scientists. The links between the children's deaths and contaminated medicines first came to light in October, when the World Health Organization sent out an alert saying four cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contained toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol and should be withdrawn.

Europe will lose out on medical innovation if draft EU reforms pass, Novo Nordisk CEO says

Europe will lose out to countries like the U.S. and Japan on new medical research, trials and treatments unless draft rules reforming the European pharmaceutical landscape change, the CEO of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk warned on Thursday. The European Commission will present its proposed overhaul of the bloc's pharmaceuticals regulation on March 29, the first major revisions to medicines rules in 20 years. It says drugs need to reach patients more quickly and in all European nations.

Best Buy, Walmart, other major US retailers tout health services

Major U.S. retailers including Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon are increasing their offerings of healthcare and health-related products as inflation-wary Americans shift more of their budgets to services and away from goods. Electronics retailer Best Buy recently kicked off a partnership with Atrium Health, part of Advocate Health, one of the country’s largest nonprofit hospital systems, Best Buy Chief Executive Officer Corie Sue Barry announced Thursday on a call with analysts.