Health News Roundup: Fifth Bulgarian pig farm hit by African swine fever; U.S. abortion rights groups sue over Missouri law

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Orion, Bayer prostate cancer drug gets FDA approval

Finland's Orion and Germany's Bayer said on Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved prostate cancer drug daroluramide, which the two companies have been developing together. "The compound was approved under the FDA Priority Review designation, which is reserved for medicines that may provide significant improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment for serious conditions," Orion said.

Fifth Bulgarian pig farm hit by African swine fever

Bulgarian veterinary authorities said on Wednesday that they would cull 17,000 pigs after detecting an outbreak of African swine fever at a breeding farm in the northeast of the country, the fifth industrial farm hit by the fast-spreading virus. The outbreak was detected at a farm in the village of Balgarsko Slivov, near the Danube town of Svishtov. More than 100,000 pigs have already been culled in another three farms in the past two weeks.

U.S. abortion rights groups sue over Missouri law

Prominent U.S. abortion rights groups Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit late on Tuesday in an effort to stop a new Missouri law that bans almost all terminations of pregnancies after eight weeks. The new law was signed by Republican Governor Mike Parson in May and is set to go into effect on Aug. 28.

Testosterone improves sexual function in older women

Women who experience sexual dysfunction after menopause may feel more desire and pleasure when they use testosterone treatments, a recent study suggests. Researchers reviewed data from 36 trials with 8,480 participants, most of whom had already gone through menopause. The trials randomly assigned some women to use testosterone treatment and others to take a placebo or an alternative hormone treatment like estrogen alone or in combination with progesterone.

Second Ebola case detected in eastern Congo's main city

A second case of Ebola was detected on Tuesday in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, a local health official said, increasing concern the virus could establish a foothold in the densely populated area close to the Rwandan border. Goma's first Ebola case was detected in mid-July, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that the spread of the disease could accelerate. The epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people since it was declared almost a year ago, becoming the second-worst outbreak on record.

Poorer U.S. patients less likely to get blood pressure controlled

(Reuters Health) - Poorer patients in the U.S. may be less likely to get their blood pressure under control, even when they are participating in a clinical trial where medication and doctor's visits are provided free of charge, a new study finds. Compared to patients from the wealthiest counties, those from the poorest counties were half as likely to get their blood pressure under control during a six-year-clinical trial, researchers report in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Expensive Gilead, Novartis cancer therapies losing patients to experimental treatments

Unusually high numbers of U.S. lymphoma patients are choosing experimental treatments over expensive cell therapies sold by Gilead Sciences Inc and Novartis AG, new data shows, helping explain why sales of the two products have not met rosy expectations. Both Gilead's Yescarta and Novartis's Kymriah - which are part of a class of therapies known in the medical field as "CAR-T" - were approved in 2017. But government and private health plans have balked at their high price of at least $373,000 for a one-time treatment before hospital costs, which can bring the bill for a single patient to over a million dollars.

Congress seeks briefing on potential threat to U.S. heparin supply

Leaders of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday asked the Food and Drug Administration about the potential threat to the U.S. heparin supply due to the outbreak of African swine fever in China. Heparin is currently on the FDA's drug shortage list.

Exclusive: Two powerful Canadian provinces argued against federal drug price crackdown

Canada's two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, have privately expressed concerns with a federal government plan to slash the price of patented drugs, arguing that such regulatory changes could hurt investment in life sciences. The Canadian government has said it plans to soon publish a final version of new regulations aimed at cutting patented drug prices that are among the highest in the world. Announced in 2017, the changes were expected to take effect in January, but the government delayed them to review feedback.

Pluristem gets positive results from radiation treatment trials

Israel's Pluristem Therapeutics Inc reported on Wednesday positive results from a series of studies in animals of its placenta-based stem cell therapy to treat acute radiation syndrome (ARS). The studies were conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense's Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute.