Health News Roundup: US FDA approves two gene therapies for sickle cell disease; Merck-Eisai's Endometrial Cancer therapy combo fails first-line treatment trial and more

Casgevy, developed by partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, and bluebird bio's Lyfgenia were approved for people aged 12 years and older. Texas AG threatens to prosecute doctors in emergency abortion Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday threatened to prosecute any doctors involved in providing an emergency abortion to a woman, hours after she won a court order allowing her to obtain one for medical necessity.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Pregnant woman sues to invalidate Kentucky's abortion bans

A pregnant woman and Planned Parenthood sued Kentucky on Friday, seeking to invalidate its near-total ban on abortion, saying the law violates rights to privacy and self-determination in the state constitution. The lawsuit was filed by an anonymous woman, who is eight weeks pregnant and wants an abortion, on behalf of a proposed class of similarly situated women in Kentucky. It comes after the state's court ruled in an earlier challenge brought by Planned Parenthood and another abortion provider that providers did not have standing to sue on patients' behalf.

Merck-Eisai's Endometrial Cancer therapy combo fails first-line treatment trial

Merck said on Friday a combination therapy being developed with partner Eisai failed a late-stage trial testing it as a first-line treatment for a type of cancer in the uterus lining. This is the latest in a string of trial failures studying Merck's blockbuster drug Keytruda and Eisai's Lenvima combination as a treatment for various cancers.

US FDA approves two gene therapies for sickle cell disease

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease, making one of them the first treatment in the United States based on the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene editing technology. Casgevy, developed by partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, and bluebird bio's Lyfgenia were approved for people aged 12 years and older.

Texas AG threatens to prosecute doctors in emergency abortion

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday threatened to prosecute any doctors involved in providing an emergency abortion to a woman, hours after she won a court order allowing her to obtain one for medical necessity. Paxton said in a letter that the order by District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin did not shield doctors from prosecution under all of Texas's abortion laws, and that the woman, Kate Cox, had not shown she qualified for the medical exception to the state's abortion ban.

India's Max Healthcare to buy Sahara Hospital in $113 million deal

India's Max Healthcare Institute said on Friday it would buy Sahara Hospital in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh for an enterprise value of 9.40 billion rupees ($112.76 million), as it looks to expand its operations in the country. The 550-bed Sahara Hospital treats about 200,000 patients every year and has a revenue potential of 2 billion rupees for fiscal 2024, Max Healthcare said in a statement.

WHO says more contaminated medicinal syrups found in new regions

The World Health Organization on Thursday said several contaminated syrups and suspension medicines had been identified in countries in the WHO regions of the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific. The affected products were manufactured by Pharmix Laboratories in Pakistan, the WHO said, and were first identified in the Maldives and Pakistan. Some of the tainted products have also been found in Belize, Fiji and Laos. Pharmix was not immediately available for comment.

WHO 'very worried' about spread of mpox in DRC

The World Health Organization is “very worried” about the spread of a severe form of mpox that has killed nearly 600 people, mainly children, in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year, a senior official said. The country has reported over 13,000 cases in 2023, more than twice as many as during the last peak in 2020, with the disease occurring in almost every province. The WHO is working with the authorities on the response and a risk assessment.

Novo, Lilly rivals explore booming weight-loss drug market entry

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have pulled ahead in the race for a slice of the weight-loss drugs market, expected to be worth $100 billion by the end of the decade, and rivals are looking to catch up through acquisitions and trials. The following are deals by big drugmakers and comments from top executives on the promising opportunity:

Vertex/CRISPR price sickle cell disease gene therapy at $2.2 million

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and its partner CRISPR Therapeutics said on Friday their sickle cell disease gene therapy Casgevy would be available at a list price of $2.2 million in the United States. Bluebird bio said it has set a list price of $3.1 million for its treatment, Lyfgenia, for the condition.

Fresenius plans to sell rehabilitation care clinics - FAZ

Fresenius has hired UBS to manage the sale of its rehabilitation care clinic business as the German healthcare group focuses on core activities, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Friday, citing financial sources. The rehabilitation clinics, also known as post-acute care clinics and part of the group's hospital project development business Vamed, could be worth as much as 800 million euros ($858 million), according to the report.

(With inputs from agencies.)