Health News Roundup: U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 47, cases of illness to 2,290; Johnson & Johnson loses pelvic mesh class action in Australia

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Alnylam's rare genetic disorder drug priced at $575,000 per year

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc priced its gene silencing drug to treat patients with a rare genetic disorder that can cause severe pain at $575,000 per year after receiving an early U.S. approval on Wednesday. The drug, Givlaari, uses a Nobel Prize-winning mechanism known as RNA interference to target and "silence" specific genetic material and is the second such drug to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Charity to pay $4 million to resolve U.S. pharma kickback probe

A Florida-based charity will pay $4 million to resolve claims that it acted as a conduit for companies including Biogen Inc and Novartis AG to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients using their high-priced multiple sclerosis drugs, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. The settlement with the patient assistance charity The Assistance Fund marked the third so far with a foundation linked to an industry-wide probe that has resulted in $850 million in settlements with drugmakers and charities.

U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 47, cases of illness to 2,290

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 2,290 confirmed and probable cases and 5 more deaths from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total death toll to 47 so far this year. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 2,172 cases and 42 deaths from the illness.

Most U.S. planned home births are not low-risk

(Reuters Health) - Experts recommend that home birth only be considered for low-risk pregnancies, but that's often not what happens in the U.S., where no formal guidelines exist, researchers say. U.S. data on intended home births from 2016 through 2018 show that more than 60% of the pregnancies had risk factors that could lead to complications and possibly maternal or infant death, authors report in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

White House: Vaping rules not stalled, Trump plans Friday meeting

President Donald Trump will host a meeting on vaping at the White House on Friday with a range of groups, including industry and public health representatives, a White House spokesman said on Wednesday, as his administration considers calls to tighten e-cigarette regulations amid alarm over serious health issues. "The policy making process is not stalled," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. Trump on Nov. 11 said he would be meeting with industry representatives after previously saying his administration would release its position on vaping last week, though it never was.

Many LGBT people in China forced into illegal 'conversion therapy': groups

Many LGBT people in China are being forced to undergo "conversion therapy", often done by unscrupulous, unlicensed providers in a sector that operates with little oversight by the authorities, rights groups said. Though widely discredited by doctors, conversion therapy is an attempt to change a person's sexual orientation through various means such as hypnosis, drugs, acupuncture and even electric shock therapy.

Canadian teen developed 'popcorn lung' type injury from vaping: report

Researchers in Canada have identified a new kind of vaping-related lung injury they believe is linked to flavorings in conventional vape pens, causing symptoms similar to the "popcorn lung" injury seen in workers exposed to flavorings in microwave popcorn. The case, published on Thursday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, involved a 17-year-old male who developed a form of bronchiolitis, a serious and irreversible lung injury caused by chemical exposure.

U.S. lawmakers question Google about collection of health records

U.S. Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren along with fellow Senators Richard Blumenthal and Bill Cassidy wrote a letter to Alphabet's Google on Wednesday to raise questions about its access to the health records of tens of millions of Americans. Warren and Blumenthal, who are Democrats, along with Cassidy, a Republican, were focused on a business partnership that Google formed with Ascension Health.

Healthcare battles in Democratic White House race could carry risk in 2020, polls show

A trio of polls released ahead of Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate showed a majority of Americans support Medicare for All, but offered conflicting signals about whether the proposed healthcare overhaul could hurt the party in the November 2020 general election. As with the previous four debates, Wednesday's televised clash in Atlanta is likely to be dominated by the intra-party battle over how best to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Americans.

Johnson & Johnson loses pelvic mesh class action in Australia

More than 1,350 Australian women won a seven-year-old class action lawsuit on Thursday against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for misleading patients and surgeons about the risks of the pharmaceutical giant's pelvic mesh implants. The suit is one of many J&J has faced in the United States, Canada and Europe over the implants, used to treat urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, in which organs shift from normal positions. J&J in October agreed to pay nearly $117 million to resolve claims in 41 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.