Health News Roundup: Bangladesh bans heartburn drug ranitidine over cancer fears; Hungary finds African swine fever in wild boar near Budapest

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

CVS suspends sales of Zantac brand and generic heartburn drug during safety review

CVS Health Corp said on Saturday it will discontinue sales the popular Zantac heartburn treatment and its own generic ranitidine products from its pharmacies after traces of a known carcinogen were found in some of the products by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said earlier this month that some of the pills contained small amounts N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which has also been found in some widely used blood pressure medicines, leading to shortages of those drugs.

U.S. CDC recommends against using vapes with marijuana ingredient

People should stop using e-cigarettes with marijuana ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), U.S. public health officials recommended on Friday as investigation on outbreak of lung illness linked to vaping deepens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned on vaping, but its latest recommendation focused on THC products after nationwide data pointed to a large number of cases related to the use of the high-inducing component of marijuana.

Bangladesh bans heartburn drug ranitidine over cancer fears

Bangladesh's drug regulatory authority on Sunday issued a ban on sales of popular heartburn drug ranitidine while it investigates a potential cancer-causing substance in the drug. The move comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that some of the pills contained small amounts N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which the regulator says is a "probable human carcinogen".

Bristol-Myers immunotherapy combo outperforms chemo in lung cancer survival: study

About 40% of patients who received a combination of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's immuno-oncology drugs Opdivo and Yervoy as an initial treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were alive after two years, according to data presented at a medical meeting on Saturday. The combination outperformed chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for the most common form of lung cancer, with 33% of patients who got the older therapy still alive after two years, the company said.

Results of GSK and AstraZeneca trials may widen ovarian cancer drug use

GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca both reported trial results that will likely make their competing drugs available to a wider group of ovarian cancer patients, possibly helping GSK catch its rival in a highly contested drug class. The two said separately on Saturday their drug candidates - in a class known as PARP inhibitors - staved off the return of metastasized ovarian cancer in women who had responded to initial standard treatment, reducing the risk of a relapse.

Novartis says Kisqali boosts survival in breast cancer patients

Novartis said on Sunday that Kisqali helped women with advanced breast cancer after menopause live longer, adding to data the Swiss company hopes will help convince doctors to choose its drug over Pfizer's blockbuster Ibrance. Kisqali plus the hormone therapy fulvestrant, when compared to fulvestrant alone, demonstrated a significant improvement in survival with a 28% reduction in risk of death, Novartis said at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Barcelona.

U.S. travel warning adds to pressure on Tanzania over suspected Ebola cases

The United States has warned its citizens to take extra care when visiting Tanzania amid concerns over Ebola, adding to calls for the East African country to share information about suspected cases of the deadly disease there. U.S. travelers should "exercise increased caution", the State Department said on Friday in an updated travel advisory that cited reports of "a probable Ebola-related death in Dar es Salaam".

Hungary finds African swine fever in wild boar near Budapest

Hungary's national food safety authority Nebih has found five cases of African swine fever in wild boar carcasses near Budapest, it said on Sunday. The causes of the infections found in a closed hunting area in Budakeszi, west of the Hungarian capital, were not immediately clear and an investigation was under way, the authority said.

Vape product concerns weigh on Canadian cannabis companies looking for sales boost

A U.S. recommendation that consumers avoid vaping products containing the active ingredient in marijuana ahead of their legalization in Canada next month could be a blow to Canadian cannabis companies' hopes that the higher-margin products will help propel them to profitability. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that an investigation into 805 confirmed or probable cases of vaping-related respiratory illnesses suggested that products containing THC, the psychoactive element in cannabis, likely played a role.

U.S. agents raid genetic testing labs, charge 35 in Medicare fraud probe

U.S. federal agents raided genetic testing laboratories, and 35 people were criminally charged in four states in a crackdown on genetic testing fraud that officials said on Friday caused $2.1 billion in losses to federal healthcare insurance programs. Officials at the Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department Office of the Inspector General said charges were filed in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Georgia in "one of the largest healthcare fraud schemes ever charged."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)