Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Quebec appeals court upholds C$15 billion tobacco class action ruling

The Court of Appeal of Quebec upheld on Friday the bulk of a 2015 decision that awarded around C$15 billion ($11.29 billion)to smokers in the Canadian province, dealing a blow to Big Tobacco. The judgment involves class action suits that were consolidated against the Canadian subsidiaries of British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International, known respectively as Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc (RBH) and JTI-Macdonald Corp. Rheumatoid arthritis risk lower among smokers who quit

Adults who quit smoking decades ago may have a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis than people who gave up cigarettes more recently, a U.S. study suggests. Smoking has long been linked to an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis, and quitting can reduce this risk. But the new study offers fresh evidence that years of cessation can pay off more than just a brief period without cigarettes. Endo gains on favorable FDA drug compounding decision

Endo International Plc said on Friday the U.S. health regulator has decided https://bit.ly/2XGrm1k not to include blood pressure treatment vasopressin in its list of drugs that can be used in compounding, in a boost to the drugmaker that makes the only FDA-approved version of the product. The company had sued the Food and Drug Administration in October 2017, alleging that the agency had improperly authorized the bulk compounding of hundreds of drugs, including "essentially a copy" of Endo's Vasostrict. When diagnosing a patient's ills, there's strength in numbers

When multiple doctors are on the job, there's a higher likelihood that a correct diagnosis will be made, a new study suggests. Researchers found that diagnoses were far more accurate if they were the result of online physician crowdsourcing, according to a report in JAMA Network Open. Philippines to charge officials of Sanofi, government over dengue vaccine

The Philippine Department of Justice on Friday said it had found probable cause to indict officials from French drugmaker Sanofi and former and current Philippine health officials over 10 deaths it said were linked to use of a dengue vaccine. It recommended charges be filed in court for multiple counts of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, due to what it said were procedural lapses and irregularities in implementing a Philippine dengue immunization program using Sanofi's Dengvaxia. Gastric bypass surgery tied to diabetes remission

Three in four obese people with diabetes who had a common type of weight-loss operation called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) experienced remission of their diabetes within a year after surgery, a Danish study found. Five years later, 27 percent of the people who achieved remission had relapsed, the study also found. However, the total proportion of people in remission held steady, suggesting that some people achieved remission later and remained free of diabetes symptoms. After attacks, MSF suspends Ebola treatment in epicenter of Congo outbreak

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has suspended medical activities at the epicenter of an Ebola epidemic in Democratic Republic of Congo after two of its facilities were torched by unidentified assailants, the French charity said on Thursday. Two MSF facilities treating Ebola patients in North Kivu province were attacked in separate incidents earlier this week. Aid workers have faced mistrust in some areas as they work to contain the Ebola outbreak, which has become the worst in Congo's history. Pfizer unit Meridian under civil investigation by U.S. Attorney

Pfizer Inc said on Thursday it received a request for documents as part of a U.S. investigation related to quality issues involving the manufacture of auto-injectors at its Meridian Medical Technologies site. Pfizer, in a regulatory filing, said it would be producing records in response to the civil investigative demand from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. New cancer-causing toxin found in recalled blood pressure pills

U.S. health regulators said on Friday a third cancer-causing toxin was found in some blood pressure pills recalled by India's Hetero Labs Ltd a day earlier, adding to a global recall of commonly used drugs to treat hypertension. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also looking into whether these types of impurities could be found in other classes of drugs, a spokeswoman for the regulator said. Sugary drink tax tied to drop in soda consumption

People in Berkeley, California, dramatically cut their soda consumption after the city implemented a "soda tax," a new study suggests. Three years after Berkeley passed its soda tax in November 2014, residents reported drinking half as many servings of sugary drinks as they did before the tax, the study found. Over the same three-year period, water consumption surged 29 percent.

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