Health News Roundup: 89Bio's NASH drug succeeds in mid-stage study; shares soar; China OKs its first mRNA vaccine, from drugmaker CSPC and more

The WHO said in a late Tuesday statement that the confirmation of the disease by Tanzania's national public laboratory followed the death of five of eight people in Tanzania's northwest Kagera region who developed symptoms, which include fever, vomiting, bleeding and renal failure. Roche teams up with Lilly to validate Alzheimer's blood test Roche and Eli Lilly and Co are joining forces to develop a blood test for Alzheimer's disease, and plan to kick off a two-year clinical trial involving hundreds of volunteers with the aim of winning U.S. regulatory approval.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

89Bio's NASH drug succeeds in mid-stage study; shares soar

Drug developer 89Bio Inc said on Wednesday its experimental treatment for liver disease NASH met the main goals of a small mid-stage study, sending its shares surging nearly 50% in premarket trading. The drug, pegozafermin, helped reduce liver scarring as measured on two different scales in patients with NASH, or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, data showed.

China OKs its first mRNA vaccine, from drugmaker CSPC

China has approved its first domestically developed mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd said on Wednesday, a major achievement in a country that has declined to use Western COVID shots to support domestic research. China, whose home-grown vaccines are seen as less effective than the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA shots, has been racing to develop vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology since early 2020.

Moderna expects to price its COVID vaccine at about $130 in the US

Moderna Inc expects to price its COVID-19 vaccine at around $130 per dose in the U.S. going forward as purchases move to the private sector from the government, the company’s president Stephen Hoge said in an interview on Monday. “There are different customers negotiating different prices right now, which is why it's a little bit complicated,” Hoge said ahead of a Congressional hearing run by Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Moderna’s pricing plans.

Biden signs bill requiring declassification of COVID origins information

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed a bill that requires declassification of information related to the origins of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the White House said. Biden said he shared Congress' goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of COVID-19.

Novartis scraps UK heart attack prevention trial

Novartis is halting a UK-based trial originally planned as part of a partnership with NHS England, a setback in its quest to win wider approval for its novel cholesterol-lowering drug to prevent heart attacks and strokes. A spokesperson said that among the factors influencing the decision, the coronavirus pandemic had made it difficult to make progress on the trial.

Chinese COVID data from Wuhan market gives clues on origins, researchers say

Data from the early days of the COVID pandemic, briefly uploaded to a database by Chinese scientists, gives information on its origins, including suggesting a role for raccoon dogs in the coronavirus reaching humans, international researchers said.

The virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, with many suspecting a live animal market to be involved, before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people to date.

US FDA expands use of Regeneron's cholesterol drug in young children

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved the expanded use of its drug in children aged 5 to 11 years to treat an ultra-rare disease that causes high cholesterol levels. The drug, Evkeeza, was approved in February 2021 as an additional treatment with other lipid-lowering therapies, for patients aged 12 years and above with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH).

US declines to force lower price on cancer drug Xtandi

The U.S. government will not force Pfizer Inc and Astellas Pharma Inc to lower the price of their prostate cancer drug Xtandi using its emergency "march-in" authority, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Tuesday. March-in rights, which have never been used before, allow the government to grant additional licenses to third parties for products developed using federal funds if the original patent holder does not make them available to the public on reasonable terms.

Tanzania detects its first-ever cases of the highly fatal Marburg viral disease

Tanzania has confirmed its first-ever cases of Marburg, a high-fatality viral hemorrhagic fever with symptoms broadly similar to those of Ebola, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. The WHO said in a late Tuesday statement that the confirmation of the disease by Tanzania's national public laboratory followed the death of five of eight people in Tanzania's northwest Kagera region who developed symptoms, which include fever, vomiting, bleeding and renal failure.

Roche teams up with Lilly to validate Alzheimer's blood test

Roche and Eli Lilly and Co are joining forces to develop a blood test for Alzheimer's disease, and plan to kick off a two-year clinical trial involving hundreds of volunteers with the aim of winning U.S. regulatory approval. The effort, unveiled in a statement on Wednesday, comes as Lilly as well as Eisai and Biogen are gearing up to sell drugs aimed at slowing the advance of the mind-robbing illness, but their use will require a diagnosis at earlier disease stages than is the norm today.

(With inputs from agencies.)