Health Roundup: Walmart health insurer tactic; Ebola to last 6 months

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Walmart, Home Depot adopt health insurer tactic in drug copay battle

Walmart and Home Depot, two of the top 10 U.S. employers, have embraced a health insurance strategy that punishes drugmakers for using discount cards to keep patients from switching or stopping their medications. Large U.S. companies have started tightly managing how employees and their family members use these popular discount, or copay, cards for everything from multiple sclerosis treatments to widely-used rheumatoid arthritis medications sold through a speciality pharmacy.

Congo's Ebola outbreak to last at least six more months: WHO

The Ebola outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has already killed more than 200 people, is expected to last until mid-2019, a senior World Health Organization official said on Tuesday. "It's very hard to predict timeframes in an outbreak as complicated as this with so many variables that are outside our control, but certainly we're planning on at least another six months before we can declare this outbreak over," WHO emergency response chief Peter Salama told reporters.

In rural France, Macron seeks remedy for 'healthcare deserts'

When Joelle Dupas falls ill, she goes to a medical centre in her hometown in rural western France where all 12 doctors have come out of retirement. The 66-year-old tried for months to find a doctor after retiring to Laval, a quiet town of 50,000 residents surrounded by rolling fields. Her search ended at the simple centre managed by the 12 veteran doctors, aged between 67 and 70, on the ground floor of an apartment block.

Merck drug Keytruda succeeds in a late-stage oesophagal cancer trial

Merck & Co's blockbuster drug Keytruda met the main goal of a late-stage trial testing the treatment in patients with cancers of the digestive tract, the U.S. drugmaker said on Wednesday. Keytruda, among a class of medicines called PD-1 inhibitors, is Merck's top-selling drug and has already been approved to treat several forms of cancer including skin and lung cancer.

Juul Labs to pull sweet e-cig flavours to curb youth use

Juul Labs Inc, the U.S. market leader for electronic cigarettes, said on Tuesday it will pull popular flavours such as mango, cucumber and fruit from retail store shelves in an effort to reduce surging teenage use of its products. The move comes as Juul and other e-cigarette makers have faced heightened scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amid a sharp increase by high school students in use of the devices, which look like a USB flash drive and vaporize a flavoured liquid containing nicotine.

Beekeeper therapist uses venom to heal his patients

On his rooftop in the outskirts of Cairo, Omar Abulhassan raises thousands of bees -- not for the honey, but their venom. After reading about the benefits of bees in the Koran, Abulhassan, 30, decided five years ago to raise the insects and use the venom in alternative therapy. He believes bee stings can relieve pain and cure illnesses such as rheumatism.

U.S. physicians urge FDA to bolster labelling on high-sugar foods

The American Medical Association (AMA) is urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ramp up labelling of high-sugar foods, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The association, which represents U.S. physicians, is calling on the FDA to develop front-of-package warning labels for foods high in added sugars. It is also pushing for the FDA to limit the amount of sugar that can be added to products that claim to have health or nutritional benefits.

Patients and industry fret over drug supplies if no Brexit deal

Consumers and the pharmaceuticals industry alike are anxious about medical supplies if there is no deal on Britain's departure from the European Union. While the EU and Britain have agreed on a draft text of a Brexit withdrawal agreement, it remains unclear if Prime Minister Theresa May can get it approved by parliament.

German health minister calls for the faster adoption of biosimilar drugs

Germany's health minister Jens Spahn has called for the faster adoption of cheaper copies of biotech drugs to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases to reign in rising public healthcare costs. "Where there is a more affordable alternative at the same quality, we have to use it," Spahn, who is vying to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the centre-right Christian Democrat party, told daily Handelsblatt.

Pfizer loses blockbuster drug patent fight in UK Supreme Court

Pfizer lost the final round in a long-running patent battle in Britain on Wednesday after the country's highest court ruled against it in a case involving its $5 billion-a-year pain drug Lyrica. The Supreme Court decision is a blow for the U.S. drugmaker -- which had sought to affirm a secondary medical use patent for the product -- and a win for generic drug companies Actavis, now renamed Allergan, and Mylan.

(With inputs from agencies.)