Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Many sleepless Americans trying meditation and yoga

Roughly half of U.S. adults suffer from sleep problems, and research suggests that many of them are practicing mind-body exercises like yoga and meditation that might help make it easier to get a good nights' rest. Mind-body medicine can include a range of health practices that combine efforts to focus the mind, control breathing and move the body in ways that promote relaxation. These practices are a key component of many forms of complementary and integrative medicine that previous studies have linked to improvements in sleep, researchers note in Sleep Medicine. Roche 'steps up' for gene therapy with $4.3 billion Spark bet

Roche is buying U.S.-based gene therapy specialist Spark Therapeutics for $4.3 billion after developments in this area convinced the Swiss drugmaker to "step up", Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Monday. Roche will pay $114.50 per share for Spark, more than twice the U.S. company's closing price on Feb. 22, for a portfolio that includes a blindness treatment that has U.S. and European approval and other projects for hemophilia and neurodegenerative disorders like Huntington's disease. AstraZeneca's Lynparza meets main goal in late-stage pancreatic cancer study

British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said on Tuesday its cancer drug being jointly developed with U.S.-based Merck & Co met the primary goal in a late-stage study for a rare type of pancreatic cancer. The study showed that Lynparza was successful as a first-line maintenance treatment for adults with a form of genetically-mutated pancreatic cancer called germline BRCA -mutated metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Brexit to harm UK's cherished health service, experts say

A British exit from the EU without a deal would have "an immediate and drastic" impact on availability of medicines and vaccines as well as affecting health system funding and staffing, experts warned on Monday. Although a no-deal Brexit was the worst scenario, even a negotiated divorce from the European Union would also damage the National Health Service (NHS), the experts said in a review published in The Lancet journal. Rise of drug-resistant superbugs rings alarm bells in Europe

The spread of superbugs resistant to antimicrobial drugs shows no sign of slowing in Europe, health officials said on Tuesday, making food poisoning and other infections more difficult to treat. Releasing data on the growth of antimicrobial resistance, the European Union's commissioner for health and food safety said it should "ring alarm bells" across the region. Sanofi, Regeneron lose U.S. patent challenge to Amgen cholesterol drug

Biotech company Amgen Inc said on Monday a U.S. jury confirmed the validity of patents on its cholesterol drug Repatha, rejecting a challenge by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA. Sanofi and Regeneron had stipulated that if the two Amgen patents were valid, their jointly developed cholesterol drug Praluent infringed them. Novartis aims to pump up cardio business with Ionis deal

Novartis will pay $150 million to Ionis Pharmaceuticals to license an RNA-targeting cardiovascular drug as the Swiss company aims to bolster its range of heart disease treatments that now includes the blockbuster Entresto. Novartis will do a Phase 3 trial of TQJ230, also known as AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx, against an inherited form of cardiovascular disease where people have elevated levels of so-called lipoprotein (a) that cannot effectively be cut via diet and lifestyle changes and plays a role in the narrowing of the arteries, heart attacks, thrombosis and stroke. U.S. trial tests claims Roundup weed killer caused cancer

Bayer AG on Monday faced a second U.S. jury over allegations that its popular glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup causes cancer, six months after the company's share price was rocked by a $289 million verdict in California state court. The lawsuit by California resident Edwin Hardeman against the company began on Monday morning in federal rather than state court. The trial is also a test case for a larger litigation. More than 760 of the 9,300 Roundup cases nationwide are consolidated in the federal court in San Francisco that is hearing Hardeman's case. Court ruling could help J&J defeat St. Louis talc lawsuits

A Missouri Supreme Court ruling on talc lawsuits could reduce the liability and number of large trials Johnson & Johnson faces over allegations its talc products, including baby powder, cause cancer. The ruling will likely offer some respite to the healthcare conglomerate as it deals with growing pressure over the safety of its talc products, some defense lawyers said. The company revealed in its annual report on Wednesday that it had received subpoenas from the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission related to talc litigation. Attackers torch Ebola treatment center in Congo, patients evacuated

Attackers set fire to an Ebola treatment center run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo late on Sunday, forcing staff to evacuate patients, the charity said. There were no immediate details on the identity or motive of the people who torched the center in the district of Katwa, at the heart of the country's worst outbreak of the deadly disease.