Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. U.S. top court rejects Maryland bid to revive drug price-gouging law

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Maryland's bid to revive a law aimed at preventing price gouging by pharmaceutical companies, dealing a setback to the power of states to rein in prescription drug costs. The justices declined to take up Maryland's appeal of a 2018 federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state's law, That ruling held that Maryland had regulated wholesale pricing by the companies in violation of the U.S. Constitution's bar on state-level regulation of interstate commerce. Merck's Keytruda fails late-stage study in liver cancer patients

Merck & Co Inc's cancer drug Keytruda failed a late-stage trial's main goals of slowing disease progression and extending the life of patients with a common type of liver cancer, the company said on Tuesday. The results could hamper prospects for the drug, which had received an accelerated approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November as a treatment for patients with advanced liver cancer who had been previously treated with Bayer AG's Nexavar. Common yeast infection pill tied to miscarriages

Pregnant women who take fluconazole, an oral antifungal used to treat vaginal yeast infections, may be more likely to have miscarriages than women who don't take this pill during pregnancy, a Canadian study suggests. About one in 10 pregnant women develop yeast infections, a risk that is up to 10 times higher than in nonpregnant women, researchers note in CMAJ. While topical medicines are usually the first thing prescribed for yeast infections, women who don't improve with this approach may be given fluconazole even though using this drug in pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk of certain birth defects including skeletal and heart malformations. Eating nuts tied to lower heart disease risk for diabetics

People with diabetes who regularly eat nuts may be less likely to develop heart disease than their counterparts who rarely, if ever, consume nuts, a U.S. study suggests. Diabetics who ate at least five 28-gram (one-ounce) servings of nuts a week were 17 percent less likely to develop heart disease than people with diabetes who had no more than one serving of nuts weekly, the study found. Pfizer-Lilly drug shown to help reduce back pain in late-stage trial

A non-opioid painkiller developed by Pfizer Inc and Eli Lilly and Co succeeded in reducing chronic low back pain when used in a stronger dose, results from a late-stage study showed on Tuesday. But a lower dose of the drug, tanezumab, failed to alleviate pain when compared with a placebo, the companies said in a statement. Measles outbreak in Canada's British Columbia province affects 9

A measles outbreak in Vancouver that has infected nine individuals since Feb. 15 has led officials in the western Canadian city to urge the unvaccinated and under-vaccinated to be immunized. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer of British Columbia, told Reuters on Tuesday that being under-vaccinated would include people who have had only one measles shot, when two doses are required for long-term immunization. U.S. top court rejects bid to block Indivior opioid drug copycat

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to Indivior Plc on Tuesday, clearing the way for a copycat version of the British pharmaceutical firm's lucrative opioid addiction treatment Suboxone Film in a victory for India-based generic drug maker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Chief Justice John Roberts, in a brief order, denied Indivior's request to put on hold a lower court's ruling that had opened the door to cheaper generic versions of Suboxone while the company prepares an appeal to the high court. Ireland urges people not to stockpile medicines ahead of Brexit

Ireland's deputy prime minister on Tuesday called on people not to stockpile medicine before Britain quits the European Union, saying the country had at least eight weeks of supply and was moving to source medicines from other EU countries. Despite its large pharmaceutical industry, Ireland relies on Britain for many medicines. Some of them may not be approved for use in the EU if Britain leaves on March 29 without a deal, Simon Coveney told RTE radio. Philippines revokes Sanofi's product license for dengue vaccine

The Philippines has permanently halted the sale, distribution and marketing of Sanofi's dengue vaccine in the country after the French drug maker failed to meet the directives of regulators. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Nela Charade Puno said on Tuesday registration certificates for Dengvaxia products have been revoked because of Sanofi's "brazen defiance" of the agency's directives. Climate change could raise risk of congenital heart defects

More babies could be born with heart defects in the future as global warming puts pregnant women at greater risk of exposure to dangerously high temperatures, new research suggests. The study is preliminary, and the potential impact of climate change on congenital heart disease is far from clear, the researchers say. But earlier work has suggested that expectant mothers who are exposed to extreme heat in the spring or summer, particularly in early pregnancy, are more likely to deliver babies with heart defects.