Health News Roundup: Swine fever detected in Sweden for the first time; Astellas withdraws lawsuit challenging Medicare drug price negotiation plans and more

Mexico's highest court, which consists of 11 justices, declared that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional in 2021, but the ruling only applied to the northern state of Coahuila, where that case originated. J&J to pull the plug on hypertension drug study Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday it has decided to stop a late-stage study testing its experimental drug to treat a type of hypertension.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Swine fever detected in Sweden for the first time

A dead wild boar in Sweden has tested positive for African swine fever, Sweden's Veterinary Institute said on Wednesday, the first such case in the country. African swine fever is harmless to humans but is highly contagious and deadly in domestic pigs and wild boars. It has spread from Africa to Europe and Asia and has already killed hundreds of millions of pigs, affecting global meat markets.

Astellas withdraws lawsuit challenging Medicare drug price negotiation plans

Japan-based Astellas Pharma on Wednesday withdrew a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government, days after its prostate cancer drug was spared from the first list of drugs that will be subject to Medicare price negotiations. The U.S. government, late last month, selected the first 10 drugs, including the top-selling blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer, which will face price negotiations as part of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

IBM notifies J&J unit Janssen CarePath's customers of unauthorized data access

IBM said on Wednesday it is notifying customers of Janssen CarePath, a Johnson & Johnson unit, of a "data incident" involving unauthorized access of personal information. The personal information was part of a database used on the Janssen CarePath platform, according to IBM.

J&J says drug combo contains lung cancer from spreading for longer duration

Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday its combination drug helped increase the duration of no progress in a type of non small-cell lung cancer in patients. The therapy met the main goals of the study that tested a combination of antibody treatment Rybrevant and experimental drug lazertinib against chemotherapy in patients with a more common mutation in EGFR protein that causes rapid cell growth.

Mexico's Supreme Court upholds abortion rights nationwide, paving way for federal access

Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a federal law criminalizing abortion, reaffirming an earlier ruling that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional and allowing the federal healthcare system to provide services. Mexico's highest court, which consists of 11 justices, declared that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional in 2021, but the ruling only applied to the northern state of Coahuila, where that case originated.

J&J to pull the plug on hypertension drug study

Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday it has decided to stop a late-stage study testing its experimental drug to treat a type of hypertension. The study was testing the drug candidate, macitentan, in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, which is caused by abnormally high pressure in small blood vessels in the lungs.

AT&T says tests at some lead cable sites show no public health risk

AT&T's CEO said on Wednesday tests conducted at several sites where the telecom operator abandoned lead-clad cables decades ago have shown no risks of a public health crisis. The company and Verizon have faced questions about the cables since the Wall Street Journal reported in July that the telecom firms left behind a network of underground toxic lead cables which might have contaminated water and soil.

India's Lupin to sell generic respiratory drugs on Mark Cuban's online pharmacy

India's Lupin Ltd will sell its generic drugs to treat certain respiratory disorders on billionaire investor Mark Cuban's low-cost online pharmacy in the United States, the drugmaker said on Wednesday. The partnership with Cuban-backed Cost Plus Drugs is expected to bolster Lupin's U.S. business, which already accounts for nearly 33% of its 2023 revenue.

Bristol Myers accused of illegal tactics to keep Pomalyst monopoly in lawsuit

Bristol Myers Squibb has been accused in a new lawsuit of using fraudulent patents and other illegal tactics to maintain its monopoly on blockbuster blood cancer drug Pomalyst for years after it should have faced generic competition. In a complaint filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana said the company violated U.S. antitrust law and had caused purchasers of the drug to overpay "by many hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars."

Moderna, Pfizer say updated COVID shots generate strong response vs newer variant

Moderna and rival Pfizer on Wednesday said their updated COVID-19 vaccines generated strong responses in testing against the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus that has raised fears of a resurgence of infections. Moderna said its shot generated an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against BA.2.86 compared with an untreated natural antibody response in clinical trials in humans. The variant is currently being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).