Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Too weak, too strict: India's ​food warning labels draw fire from all sides

The Indian ​government is facing fierce opposition on proposed food ‌warning ​labels from both health experts and food giants - activists say many items will escape scrutiny while companies warn that the strict thresholds will put red flags on a wide range ‌of products. In a setback to India's over $100 billion packaged food industry, which has long opposed any form of front-of-pack warnings https://www.reuters.com/world/india-proposes-front-of-pack-warning-labels-packaged-food-response-consumer-2026-08-28/, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) last week proposed a red-coloured hexagonal label for products that exceed limits in at least two ‌of three nutrients - added sugar, salt or saturated fat.

Roche outlines plans to move towards autonomous AI labs

Swiss pharmaceutical giant ‌Roche outlined plans to move towards autonomous AI labs to speed up research and development discovery at its pharma investor day on Monday. Roche is committed to "AI independence" in R&D and has recently started building autonomous AI-driven labs, Aviv Regev, executive vice president of Genentech Research and Early Development, said.

Merck licenses SciBrunch cancer ⁠drug ​in deal worth up to $2.13 ⁠billion

Merck said on Monday it would pay up to $2.13 billion under a global licensing deal with China's SciBrunch Therapeutics for rights to develop, manufacture and sell ⁠an experimental cancer treatment. The deal underscores Merck's efforts to broaden its cancer drug pipeline as it prepares for patent expirations on Keytruda, its top-selling ​immunotherapy, later this decade.

Congo's Ebola infections cross 8,000, government says

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic ⁠of Congo has risen above 8,000 for the first time in the Central African country's ongoing outbreak, government data showed on Monday. The latest situation report ⁠from ​the public health institute put the number of cases at 8,067 and deaths at 3,901.

Mirum's liver infection drug lowers virus levels in late-stage study

Mirum Pharmaceuticals on Monday said its experimental hepatitis drug reduced levels of the virus in patients, meeting the main ⁠goal of a late-stage study. Here are some key details:

India's top court allows forensic audit in Fortis-IHH Healthcare unit case

Malaysia's IHH Healthcare said ⁠on Monday that India's ⁠top court has disposed of Fortis Healthcare's petition challenging a court-ordered forensic audit concerning a decade-long dispute, allowing the audit to proceed. Fortis Healthcare had filed a petition challenging a late August court ‌order, which directed the ‌appointment of a forensic auditor into alleged asset dissipation by former ​promoters, or controlling shareholders, of Fortis.