Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. No U.S. labs follow all guidelines for 'cell-free' prenatal testing

Not even one of the commercial labs offering "cell-free" noninvasive prenatal screening for chromosomal disorders is fully following the recommendations published by the American College of Medical Genetics, according to a new report. The report was put together by a team of specialists in medical genetics and published in Genetics in Medicine. Major study debunks myth that moderate drinking can be healthy

Blood pressure and stroke risk rise steadily the more alcohol people drink, and previous claims that one or two drinks a day might protect against stroke are not true, according to the results of a major genetic study. The research, which used data from a 160,000-strong cohort of Chinese adults, many of whom are unable to drink alcohol due to genetic intolerance, found that people who drink moderately - consuming 10 to 20 grams of alcohol a day - raise their risk of stroke by 10 to 15 percent. Drugmakers Jazz, Alexion, Lundbeck to pay $123 million to resolve U.S. charity kickback probe

Three drugmakers will pay $122.6 million to resolve claims they used charities that help cover Medicare patients' out-of-pocket drug costs as a way to pay kickbacks aimed at encouraging use of their medications, including some expensive ones. The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday said Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc, Lundbeck and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc were the latest companies to settle claims stemming from an industry-wide probe of drugmakers' financial support of patient assistance charities. Health Canada plans to suspend Allergan's breast implant license

Health Canada plans to suspend the license for Allergan Plc's Biocell breast implant due to the risk of a rare cancer linked to such implants, the regulator said in a notice to the Botox-maker on Thursday. Breast augmentation using implants is a popular form of cosmetic surgery but regulators are studying textured implants, which have a rough surface, and their possible link to anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Australian opposition's promise for health spending buoys stocks

Shares in Australian medical imaging and cancer-treatment firms rose on Friday after the opposition Labor party promised increased spending in the sector, weeks out from an election that opinion polls suggest they will win in a landslide. The stock price gains added a cumulative A$100 million ($70 million) to the market capitalization of the four biggest movers and underscored how seriously equity markets are pricing in a center-left Labor victory at a vote due by the end of May. How cannabis is firing up the U.S. supply chain

U.S. companies cannot stop talking about marijuana, hoping in part they can catch investor interest as the booming economy around the drug lifts revenues throughout the supply chain. With the recreational use of cannabis now legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia and medical marijuana legal in 23 states, marijuana is on its way to becoming an $80 billion industry in the United States by 2030, according to estimates by Cowen Inc. Moderate muscle strength tied to lower risk of diabetes

Maintaining a moderate amount of muscle strength may help adults lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers asked 4,681 people without diabetes, whose average age was 43, to do leg and bench presses to measure their muscle strength, and to perform treadmill tests to assess their cardiorespiratory fitness. During an average follow-up period of more than eight years, 229 participants, or almost 5 percent, developed diabetes. Novartis, Amgen in dispute over migraine drug partnership

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG sued Amgen Inc on Thursday, accusing the U.S. biotechnology company of trying to wrongfully back out of agreements to jointly develop and market the migraine prevention drug Aimovig and keep the profits for itself. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan comes as drugmakers move to build share in the large market for new treatments to prevent migraine headaches. Oklahoma drops several claims in opioid case against J&J, Teva

Oklahoma's attorney general on Thursday had dropped all but a single claim against Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd in a closely watched lawsuit alleging the drugmakers helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic. The move by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter came ahead of an upcoming May 28 trial, the first in the United States to result from roughly 2,000 lawsuits seeking to hold manufacturers of painkillers responsible for contributing to the epidemic. Drug company founder, execs exploited patients to sell opioid: U.S. prosecutor

The founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc put profits over patient safety by bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive fentanyl spray, fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, a federal prosecutor said on Thursday at the end of a landmark trial. John Kapoor, the drugmaker's former chairman, and four colleagues are the first executives of a painkiller manufacturer to face trial for conduct that authorities say was tied to a drug abuse epidemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.