Health News Roundup: Flipkart, Amazon, others rush to pull vaping devices after India ban

Burkina Faso scientist deployed new weapon to fight malaria

Scientists in Burkina Faso have deployed a new weapon in the fight against malaria, and waded into a thorny bioethics debate, by letting loose thousands of genetically sterilized mosquitoes. Their experiment is the first outside the lab to release genetically altered mosquitoes in the hope of reducing their ability to spread the often deadly disease.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Buttigieg unveils health plan

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Thursday unveiled his plan to reform the U.S. healthcare system by offering everyone coverage under the federal Medicare program, but not forcing people to give up private health insurance plans. "For years, Washington politicians have allowed the pharmaceutical industry, giant insurance companies, and powerful hospital systems to profit off of people when they are at their sickest and most vulnerable," said Buttigieg, who is mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

British baby's death not due to SMA gene therapy: Novartis

A British baby's death this year after getting Novartis's gene therapy Zolgensma was not caused by a toxic drug reaction, the Swiss drugmaker said, allaying concerns over the $2.1 million-per-patient treatment's risks. Novartis also said on Thursday that babies with muscle-wasting spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) treated before symptoms emerge were meeting normal development milestones, a welcome announcement amid revelations of data manipulation that have shrouded Zolgensma.

Unsafe sex: Argentina crisis deflates condom sales as costs rise

In South America's capital of romance, Argentine lovers are cutting back on one important cost: contraception. Amid a biting recession, a sharp currency devaluation and painful inflation, sales of condoms and birth control pills have tumbled, pharmacists and manufacturers say.

Sick and elderly: Some EU nationals struggle to prove UK residency ahead of Brexit

Sonja Brain, 84, is losing her sight and bed-bound in hospital after a cancerous tumor was removed from her spine. But she has another problem: proving she has the right to stay in the United Kingdom after Brexit. Brain, a Dutch national who moved to the United Kingdom from the Netherlands 59 years ago, has a British husband, four British children, six British grandchildren, and has lived in the same house in Wales for the last three decades.

Flipkart, Amazon, others rush to pull vaping devices after India ban

Amazon.com, Walmart-owned Flipkart and other e-commerce portals in India scrambled on Thursday to pull listings of vaping products a day after the federal government imposed a nationwide ban on electronic cigarettes. Warning of an "epidemic" among young people, India banned the sale, production, import and advertising of e-cigarettes, dealing a blow to plans of companies such as Philip Morris International and Juul Labs to sell the products in India.

India bans e-cigarettes as global backlash at vaping gathers pace

India banned the sale of electronic cigarettes on Wednesday and warned of an "epidemic" among young people, in the latest and potentially biggest move globally against vaping over growing health concerns. The ban cuts off a huge future market from e-cigarette makers at a time when the number of people smoking worldwide is declining. It could dash the expansion plans of companies such as Juul Labs and Philip Morris International in the country.

Biotech is going to the dogs - and big profits await

For Jessica Lescault there is no question that her 6-year old English bulldog "Moose" deserves cutting-edge biotechnology cancer treatment as much as any human patient. "Pets are your loved ones, pets should be your family, pets are not something you keep on a chain in the backyard," the intensive-care nurse from Somers, Connecticut, said.

Roche bid to recycle Gazyva for lupus nephritis wins FDA breakthrough tag

Roche has won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's breakthrough therapy tag for its drug Gazyva in lupus nephritis, the Swiss drugmaker said on Wednesday, boosting its efforts to recycle the 2013-approved lymphoma medicine for new indications. There are no FDA-approved drugs for lupus nephritis, a life-threatening manifestation of the autoimmune disease lupus in which the kidneys grow inflamed. Roche has heralded Gazyva's potential in lupus in helping turn a medicine with 2018 sales of 390 million Swiss francs ($393 million) into a commercial success.