Health News Roundup: With a new hip or knee, most return to driving in a few weeks

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Small relief for Biogen in MS drug approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Biogen Inc's new oral drug to treat multiple sclerosis, offering the drugmaker some relief as its core franchise faces patent challenges. Shares of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen rose 2.6% to $305.25 in early trade.

No country immune to risk of African swine fever spreading: OIE

African swine fever will spread further across Asia where it has devastated herds, and no country is immune from being hit by the deadly animal virus, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday. The disease, which has hit the world's top pork producer China hard, originated in Africa before spreading to Europe and Asia. It has been found in 50 countries, killing hundreds of million pigs, while reshaping global meat and feed markets.

New York City Council votes to ban sale of foie gras

New York City, often viewed as the fine dining capital of America, on Wednesday became the latest U.S. locality to ban the sale of foie gras, prompting the country's largest producer of foie gras to vow to mount a court battle to overturn it. Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is a delicacy produced from the enlarged livers of ducks and geese that have been force-fed corn.

IOM suspends some Ebola screening after three aid workers killed in South Sudan

The U.N. migration agency has suspended some screening services for Ebola after three of its aid workers were killed in South Sudan, the latest deadly incident involving relief staff in the violence-ridden country. In a statement, the International Organization for Migration said the workers - two men and one woman - were hit by crossfire during clashes between rival armed groups in the country's central Equatoria region.

Merck loses bid to revive $2.54 billion patent verdict against Gilead

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday dealt a major blow to Merck & Co Inc as it upheld a ruling that threw out a $2.54 billion jury verdict the drugmaker had won against Gilead Sciences Inc. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a determination by a federal judge in Delaware that the Merck patent at issue in the case, which relates to hepatitis C treatment, was invalid.

Outcome Health to pay $70 million to settle U.S. doctors' office ad fraud probe

Outcome Health, which streams pharmaceutical ads on televisions and computer tablets it installs in doctors' offices, agreed to pay $70 million to end a U.S. criminal probe into whether it defrauded clients by selling ad inventory it did not have. In a statement on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said Chicago-based Outcome entered a three-year non-prosecution agreement where it admitted that former executives and employees overbilled clients, which were mostly pharmaceutical companies, in a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2017.

Novartis' Zolgensma study halted by FDA amid safety questions

U.S. regulators have halted a trial of Novartis's Zolgensma treatment after an animal study raised safety concerns, the company said on Wednesday, in a setback for the drugmaker's plan to expand its use to older patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's partial hold on the so-called STRONG trial impacts patients aged up to five with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) who were to receive a higher dose of the gene therapy via a spinal infusion.

With a new hip or knee, most return to driving in a few weeks

After knee- or hip replacement surgery, most patients return to driving within about four weeks - much quicker than some current recommendations, according to a U.S. study. Recent advances in surgical techniques and anesthesia have helped accelerate rehabilitation time, and past practices of advising patients to wait six or eight weeks before driving may no longer apply, the study team concludes in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Pediatricians told child assent is an important, moral obligation

Doctors should always ask for a child's consent before treating them, and they should apologize when they proceed against the child's objections, argues a new commentary aimed at pediatricians. This ethical debate itself is not new, the authors acknowledge in the journal Pediatrics, where they make a case for strengthening guidelines on pediatric assent.

Exclusive: J&J's own expert, working for FDA, found asbestos in Baby Powder

Ever since Johnson & Johnson disclosed this month that a government test had turned up asbestos in its Baby Powder, the company has attacked the validity of the result. On Tuesday, for example, J&J announced that other labs it hired ultimately found no asbestos in samples from the bottle tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or from the same production lot.

(With inputs from agencies.)