Health News Roundup: Johnson & Johnson to acquire Proteologix for $850 million; CVS Health launches new snack brand called Well Market and more

Shares of Biogen and Ionis were each down nearly 2% in premarket trading. Novo Nordisk is optimistic that Kalundborg fire won't delay expansion Novo Nordisk said on Thursday it was "optimistic" that a fire at a construction site in Kalundborg, Denmark, a key manufacturing hub, would not delay its plans to boost production capacity of its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy and Ozempic for diabetes.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Johnson & Johnson to acquire Proteologix for $850 million

Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it would acquire Proteologix for $850 million in cash, as it looks to gain access to the privately held company's experimental atopic dermatitis treatments. Proteologix's antibody PX128 is ready to enter early-stage development for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, commonly referred to as eczema, and moderate to severe asthma. PX130, its other antibody, is in preclinical development for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.

CVS Health launches new snack brand called Well Market

CVS Health launched a new packaged food brand called Well Market on Thursday, encompassing varieties of popcorn, cookies and almond. The brand will have 40 new snacks, beverages and groceries that will be sold at more than 9,000 CVS pharmacies across the United States and on the company's website.

AstraZeneca's COVID prevention drug cuts risk of disease in vulnerable patients

AstraZeneca's COVID-19 prevention therapy reduced the risk of infection in patients with weaker immunity in a late-stage trial, meeting its primary goal, the drugmaker said on Thursday. The long-acting antibody therapy called sipavibart showed a "statistically significant reduction" in symptomatic COVID-19 cases among immunocompromised patients, the company said.

US FDA approves Amgen drug for small cell lung cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday granted accelerated approval to Amgen's tarlatamab, a targeted immunotherapy for treating adults with advanced small cell lung cancer that has worsened despite chemotherapy. The therapy, marketed under the name Imdelltra, is part of Amgen's pipeline of bispecific antibodies, which are designed to attach to a cancer cell and an immune cell, bringing them together so that the body's immune system can kill the cancer.

Properly cooked hamburgers pose no bird flu risk, US study finds

No bird flu virus was found after cooking ground beef to medium to well done, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a briefing on Thursday after conducting a study as it addresses concerns over an outbreak of the disease in dairy cattle. The findings, in which scientists injected high levels of an H5N1 bird flu virus surrogate into ground beef, indicate that properly cooking hamburgers to a temperature of about 145 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (63 to 71 degrees Celsius) keeps them safe for consumers.

US unveils proposal to ease restrictions on marijuana

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday unveiled a historic proposal to ease restrictions on marijuana, a rule that if enacted would also enable more research on its medicinal benefits. The proposal, first announced in April, would reclassify cannabis from a so-called schedule one drug to a schedule three. Schedule one drugs, such as heroin, are considered highly addictive with no medical benefits, while schedule three drugs are considered to have a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.

Roche shares jump on obesity drug results from early-stage trial

Roche shares gained as much as 4.7% on Thursday after an early-stage trial showed that a newly-acquired obesity drug candidate led to significant weight loss, a key step in Swiss drugmaker's race to join the booming obesity treatment market. Roche said the study in the first of three trial stages required for regulatory approval showed the compound known as CT-388 yielded weight loss of 18.8%, when adjusted for a placebo effect, after 24 weeks in otherwise healthy adults with obesity.

Lilly's weekly insulin as effective as daily doses in studies

Eli Lilly said on Thursday its once-weekly insulin injection, efsitora, showed blood sugar reduction that was consistent with commonly used daily insulins across two studies in patients with type 2 diabetes. Lilly and Novo Nordisk are both developing weekly injections for long-acting insulins that could reduce the treatment burden for patients with diabetes.

Biogen, Ionis to discontinue development of experimental ALS drug

Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals said on Thursday they will terminate the development of their experimental treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) after failing to show improvement in patients in an early-to-mid stage study. Shares of Biogen and Ionis were each down nearly 2% in premarket trading.

Novo Nordisk is optimistic that Kalundborg fire won't delay expansion

Novo Nordisk said on Thursday it was "optimistic" that a fire at a construction site in Kalundborg, Denmark, a key manufacturing hub, would not delay its plans to boost production capacity of its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy and Ozempic for diabetes. A fire broke out earlier on Thursday on the roof of a building under construction in Kalundborg, where Novo is investing around $6 billion to boost capacity and meet soaring demand for Wegovy and Ozempic.

(With inputs from agencies.)