Health News Roundup: WHO experts to weigh whether world ready to end COVID emergency; UNICEF: More than 1 million polio vaccines lost in Sudan and more

Eylea, jointly developed with Bayer AG, has been a key growth driver for Regeneron for years, but its sales have fallen over the past few quarters, partly due to rising competition from Roche's Vabysmo since the rival secured U.S. approval last year. Cigna lifts profit view after lower medical costs drive Q1 beat Cigna Group on Friday raised its annual profit forecast after strong growth and lower medical costs at the company's health insurance business helped it beat estimates in the first quarter, lifting shares 3% in premarket trading.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

WHO experts to weigh whether world ready to end COVID emergency

A panel of global health experts will meet on Thursday to decide if COVID-19 is still an emergency under the World Health Organization's rules, a status that helps maintain international focus on the pandemic. The WHO first gave COVID its highest level of alert on Jan. 30, 2020, and the panel has continued to apply the label ever since, at meetings held every three months.

UNICEF: More than 1 million polio vaccines lost in Sudan

More than 1 million polio vaccines have been lost as collateral damage in Sudan during the upsurge in violence since April, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF told Reuters on Friday.

"A number of cold chain facilities have been looted, damaged and destroyed, including over a million polio vaccines in South Darfur," Hazel De Wet, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF told Reuters in an email.

Regeneron's Eylea drug sales hit by competition from 'new kid in town'

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc's first-quarter sales of blockbuster eye drug Eylea came in below Wall Street targets on Thursday as competition heated up, dragging the company's shares more than 5% lower in early trade. Eylea, jointly developed with Bayer AG, has been a key growth driver for Regeneron for years, but its sales have fallen over the past few quarters, partly due to rising competition from Roche's Vabysmo since the rival secured U.S. approval last year.

Cigna lifts profit view after lower medical costs drive Q1 beat

Cigna Group on Friday raised its annual profit forecast after strong growth and lower medical costs at the company's health insurance business helped it beat estimates in the first quarter, lifting shares 3% in premarket trading. One of the oldest health insurers in the U.S., Cigna saw its medical cost ratio - or spending on claims as a percentage of premiums - fall to 81.3% from 81.5% thanks to higher premiums and lower COVID-19 costs. Market expectations were pegged at 82.1%, according to four analysts polled by Refinitiv.

At Musk's brain-chip startup, animal-testing panel is rife with potential conflicts

Elon Musk's brain-implant venture has filled an animal-research oversight board with company insiders who may stand to benefit financially as the firm reaches development goals, according to company documents and interviews with six current and former employees. Such oversight boards are required by federal law for organizations experimenting on certain types of animals. The panels are charged with ensuring proper animal care, high research standards, and the reliability of data that helps regulators decide whether drugs or medical devices are safe for human testing.

Novo Nordisk rivals see room to compete in $100 billion weight-loss drug market

The enormous demand for weight-loss treatments like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy could support as many as 10 competing products with annual sales reaching up to $100 billion within a decade, mostly in the United States, industry executives and analysts said. More than half a dozen companies, from Pfizer Inc and Amgen Inc to smaller players like Altimmune Inc, are working on weight-loss therapies similar to Wegovy, viewing them as important future growth drivers. Novo was first to introduce an effective treatment shown to help people lose up to 15% of their weight. The company on Thursday reported better-than-expected profits fueled by demand for Wegovy, and told Reuters that it would prioritize U.S. supplies of the weight-loss drug over launching in new markets. Eli Lilly and Co is expected to receive a U.S. weight loss approval for its similar drug, Mounjaro, later this year.

North Carolina's Republican-led legislature passes 12-week abortion ban

North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill on Thursday that limits the window for most abortions to 12 weeks, down from 20, which could sharply reduce access to the procedure for millions of women across the U.S. south. The measure now heads to Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who has vowed to veto it, follwing the Senate's 29-20 approval along party lines, a day after the state House of Representatives passed it in a similar party-line vote.

Moderna reports surprise profit as it books deferred COVID vaccine sales

Moderna Inc on Thursday reported a small profit of 19 cents per share instead of an expected loss as it booked more revenue in the first quarter from last year's deferred orders for its COVID-19 vaccine than had been anticipated.Analysts expected a loss of $1.77 per share, according to Refinitiv data, and Moderna shares had jumped more than 5% to $136.71 by midday. They had fallen nearly 28% this year. The company did not change its forecast of $5 billion in COVID vaccine sales for the year based on advance purchase agreements. But Moderna said it was in discussions about new contracts with customers in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. that could further boost vaccine revenue.

FibroGen's anemia drug fails to meet main goal in late-stage trial

FibroGen Inc said on Friday its anemia drug had failed to meet the main goal in a late-stage trial, sending its shares tumbling nearly 13% before the bell. The drug, roxadustat, was being studied for the treatment of anemia in patients with a type of bone marrow cancer.

Novo Nordisk exec: oral weight-loss drug will have similar efficacy as Wegovy

Novo Nordisk expects the oral version of its semaglutide drug to treat obesity to have similar efficacy as its Wegovy injection, with data from a late-stage clinical trial due before the end of June, a senior executive said on Thursday. Head of development Martin Holst Lange was discussing the trial called OASIS 1 on a call with analysts following the release of better-than-expected first-quarter results by the Danish drugmaker.