Health News Summary: Drugmakers file second court challenge to Canada's new drug price rules

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Drugmakers file a second court challenge to Canada's new drug price rules

Canada's main pharmaceutical industry lobby group, along with 16 of its member companies, filed a lawsuit on Friday to block new regulations meant to lower patented drug prices, the second legal challenge to a new regime that could eventually reduce prices in the United States as well. Canada published the final regulations in August, despite heavy lobbying from drug companies, which stand to lose revenue as prices drop. The federal government estimates the new rules will save Canadian patients, employers, and insurers, including governments, C$13.2 billion ($10 billion) over a decade. Vietnam culls 4.7 million pigs as African swine fever spreads

Vietnam has culled about 4.7 million pigs to contain an outbreak of African swine fever that has spread to all 63 provinces in the Southeast Asian country, an official said on Friday. The disease first detected in February has been hard to contain because there is no vaccine, said Pham Van Dong, head of the Animal Health Department. Telemarketer charged in $1.2 billion Medicare fraud scheme pleads guilty in NJ

The owner of a telemarketing company implicated in the largest component of a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud involving the supply of medically unnecessary orthotic braces pleaded guilty to criminal charges on Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Lester Stockett, the owner of Video Doctor USA and Telemed Health Group and chief executive of AffordADoc, also agreed to pay $200 million of restitution, as part of his plea to conspiracy to defraud the United States through kickbacks and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the department said. Inside drugmakers' strategy to boost cancer medicines with 'Lazarus effect'

In the halls of MD Anderson Cancer Center, the drug Vitrakvi is known for having a "Lazarus effect" in some patients because it can reverse late-stage cancer that has defied all other treatment options. Developed by Eli Lilly and Co's Loxo Oncology and marketed by German drugmaker Bayer, it fights a rare genetic mutation that appears in less than 1% of solid tumors, regardless of where they appear in the body. Poll finds older adults not fully prepared for emergencies

While most older adults say they are confident they're ready to handle emergencies like natural disasters or power outages, many are not as prepared as they could be for these events, a new U.S. poll suggests. The University of Michigan in partnership with Washington D.C.-based non-profit AARP conducted a new edition of the National Poll on Healthy Aging in May and released the findings recently. Novartis wins FDA's breakthrough tag for lung cancer hopeful

Novartis has secured the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Breakthrough Therapy Designation for its investigational medicine capmatinib, which it aims to file for approval later this year against a mutated form of lung cancer. Novartis is aiming to win approval for oral capmatinib as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic MET exon14 skipping-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a form of the disease for which there are no targeted therapies now, the Basel-based company said on Friday. Novo Nordisk to cut insulin prices in the U.S.

Novo Nordisk will offer cheaper insulin to U.S. diabetics, the Danish drugmaker said on Friday, in response to criticism over the high price of the medication and after similar moves by rivals Sanofi and Eli Lilly. President Donald Trump has made high prescription drug prices a top issue in the 2016 presidential campaign and said that drug companies were "getting away with murder". CDC flags two new deaths from lung illness possibly tied to vaping

U.S. health authorities on Friday said two Americans had died from lung illness that was possibly tied to vaping, bringing the total count of such deaths to three as officials probe whether a "cluster" of lung illnesses are linked to e-cigarette use. One other death was under investigation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, adding that it was probing possible links with vaping to 450 cases of lung illness around the country. Medical schools fall short on racial justice: student group

(Reuters Health) - At leading U.S. medical schools, education of future doctors about racism, promotion of diversity, and service of patients of color are in need of improvement, survey results suggest. White Coats 4 Black Lives, a national group of medical students and doctors-in-training, released its second annual Racial Justice Report Card (RJRC), which indicates that medical schools have improved, but there's still work to do.

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