Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. FDA panel votes unanimously in favor of Horizon's thyroid eye disease drug

Independent advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted unanimously in favor of Horizon Therapeutics Plc's experimental treatment for active thyroid eye disease, taking the drug closer towards potential approval. If approved, teprotumumab, a type of immunotherapy, is expected to become a standard of care for the vision-threatening autoimmune disorder, which currently has no approved therapies. GSK's ViiV seeks marketing license for baby-friendly HIV pill

British drugmaker GSK applied on Friday for a license to market its HIV drug dolutegravir in a formulation designed to be easier for babies and children who are living with the virus to swallow. About 1.7 million children have HIV, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations agency UNAIDS says. Roche's Tecentriq cocktail scores trial success in melanoma

A late-stage clinical trial has shown therapy combining Roche's immunotherapy Tecentriq with two of its other drugs helped people with a form of advanced melanoma, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday. The study met its primary aim of showing progression-free survival in patients with previously untreated BRAF V600 mutation-positive advanced melanoma, Roche said. Ebola spreads in Congo after militants attack treatment camp: WHO

Cases of the deadly Ebola virus have risen in the Democratic Republic of Congo where health care workers remain largely cut off from the disease's hotspots since militants attacked their camp, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Twenty-seven Ebola cases were confirmed in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the week through Dec. 10, against an average of seven in the last three weeks, WHO said. FDA says Amarin can market fish-oil derived therapy for reducing heart attack risk

U.S. health regulators on Friday approved expanding the heart benefit claims Amarin Corp can make in promoting its drug Vascepa to include reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in high-risk patients, opening a multibillion-dollar market opportunity. The decision comes a month after an independent panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously in favor of allowing the broader claims based on positive clinical trial data. Sarepta shares surge after surprise approval of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy drug

Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc soared 31% on Friday after U.S. regulators shocked Wall Street by approving the company's treatment for a muscle-wasting disorder less than four months after rejecting the drug over safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration in August declined to approve the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) treatment, Vyondys 53, citing a risk of infection and kidney toxicity. Bristol-Myers wins $752 million in U.S. patent case against Gilead

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co on Friday said it won a $752 million jury verdict against Gilead Sciences Inc in a U.S. patent dispute relating to technology for treating cancer. A jury in Los Angeles awarded the damages after finding that Yescarta, a treatment sold by Gilead's Kite Pharma unit, infringed on a patent exclusively licensed by Bristol-Myers' Juno Therapeutics division. Social media use linked to teen disordered eating behaviors

Adolescents who are active on social media may be more likely to exercise excessively, skip meals or develop other forms of disordered eating, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers surveyed 996 seventh- and eighth-graders, age 13 on average, about their use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumbler. They also asked kids about disordered eating behaviors like worrying about their weight or shape, binge eating, skipping meals or strict exercise regimens. Samoa extends measles state of emergency, NZ to fund Pacific vaccination campaign

The South Pacific island nation of Samoa on Saturday extended a state of emergency due to a measles outbreak which has killed 72 people, mostly infants, as New Zealand announced NZ$1 million ($640,700) to help combat measles in the Pacific. Samoa said a state of emergency will be extended to Dec. 29 with 5,154 cases of measles now reported since the outbreak started in October. Samoa has a population of only 200,000.

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