Health News Roundup: Antibiotic use without prescription common in U.S.; Senators announce bipartisan proposal to lower drug prices

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Sanofi signs U.S. rights deal with Roche for flu treatment Tamiflu

French drugs and healthcare group Sanofi said on Tuesday it had signed a rights deal with Roche for the 'Tamiflu' product in the United States. The deal will give Sanofi exclusive U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) rights to Tamiflu, which is used for the prevention and treatment of flu.

Senators announce bipartisan proposal to lower drug prices

The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced a proposal to lower prescription drug prices on Tuesday that could save $100 billion in costs to government healthcare programs, and said the committee would vote on the legislation on Thursday. The committee's chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, and its leading Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden, said in a statement they had been working on the bipartisan plan to "address the broken prescription drug supply chain" for six months.

Coal miners to urge Congress to protect their black lung benefits

Around 120 coal miners with black lung disease were due in Washington on Tuesday hoping to pressure Congress to restore a higher excise tax level on coal companies to help fund their medical care, as rates of the progressive respiratory disease rise in parts of Appalachia. Coal companies had been required to pay a $1.10 per ton excise tax on underground coal production to finance the federal Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, but the amount reverted to the 1977 level of 50 cents this year after Congress declined to take action to maintain the rate.

Congo minister's resignation over Ebola snub could unblock new vaccine

Congo's health minister resigned on Monday after being stripped of responsibility for managing the country's Ebola outbreak, potentially paving the way for the introduction of a second vaccine to contain the spreading epidemic. Oly Ilunga has overseen Democratic Republic of Congo's near year-long response to what is the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. It has killed more than 1,700 and been declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).

China's agri ministry emphasizes need to ensure stable hog market

China's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday that it would work to ensure the country's pork supplies and to keep the hog market stable despite the spread of the African swine fever virus. China, the world's largest pork consumer, has reported almost 150 outbreaks of African swine fever disease since last August. Its pork imports rose sharply by 62.8% in June compared with year earlier.

Antibiotic use without prescription common in U.S.

Many people in the U.S. take antibiotics that weren't prescribed for them, according to a new study that highlights one factor that may be contributing to the rise of antibiotic resistant infections. A growing number of germs around the world are already resistant to antibiotics, making it increasingly difficult to treat infections that were once easy to combat with medications. While much of this problem is caused by doctors prescribing antibiotics to patients who don't need them, people who use these drugs without seeing a doctor first are also part of the problem.

Medicare-for-all might not cause surge in hospital use

Medicare-for-all and other versions of universal coverage being proposed for the U.S. by several presidential hopefuls wouldn't necessarily lead more people to seek hospital care, a new analysis suggests. Critics of Medicare-for-all have raised concerns that it might lead to a surge in use of inpatient services, because people with comprehensive health insurance tend to use more hospital care than people with bare-bones benefits, researchers note in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Multidrug-resistant malaria spreading in Southeast Asia: study

A strain of malaria resistant to two key drugs has spread rapidly from Cambodia and has become dominant in Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand, with a "terrifying prospect" that it could reach Africa, scientists warned on Monday, Using gnomic surveillance to track the spread of drug-resistant malaria, the scientists found that the strain, known as KEL1/PLA1, had also evolved and picked up new genetic mutations that may make it yet more resistant.

Multiple sclerosis drug helps Biogen beat Wall St. profit expectations

Biogen Inc reported better-than-expected second quarter profit and raised its 2019 earnings forecast on Tuesday, driven by higher sales of its top-selling multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera and lower taxes. Shares of the U.S. biotechnology company rose more than 5% to $244.74.

Short-term opioids for pain still come with side effects

(Reuters Health) - Patients who only briefly take opioid painkillers are still likely to face side effects, a new study suggests. While side effects associated with long-term use of the drugs have been widely studied, this is not the case with patients who take opioids for less than two weeks, said study coauthor Dr. Raoul Daoust of Hopital du Sacre-Coeur de Montreal.