Reuters - Health Report

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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

New budget test puts UK on front line in global drug price fight

LONDON (Reuters) - Can society afford modern medicines? It's a question facing governments worldwide and nowhere more so than in Britain, where a new budget test due to take effect on April 1 threatens to throw up another hurdle to patients getting the drugs.

Chinese drug approval boosts AstraZeneca's lung cancer hopes

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca has won approval for its lung cancer pill Tagrisso in China, a key market for the potential blockbuster medicine.

Mylan underpayment on EpiPen could exceed proposed settlement -study

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The amount that drugmaker Mylan NV avoided paying the U.S. government in Medicaid rebates for its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment since 2007 likely exceeds a proposed $465 million settlement the company announced in October, according to a study by private drug pricing experts published on Monday.

WHO demands access to Syria's east Ghouta to bring medical aid

GENEVA (Reuters) - The health situation is deteriorating in Syria's eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, where 300,000 people are besieged and none of the three hospitals is functioning, the World Health Organization said on Monday in a call for access to deliver aid.

FDA approves Tesaro's ovarian cancer drug

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Tesaro Inc's drug, niraparib, for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer.

Sweden to offer compensation for transgender sterilizations

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's center-left government proposed legislation on Monday that would grant compensation to transgender men and women who had to undergo mandatory sterilization in order to have their sex legally reassigned.

Would legalizing medical marijuana help curb the opioid epidemic?

(Reuters Health) - In states that legalized medical marijuana, U.S. hospitals failed to see a predicted influx of pot smokers, but in an unexpected twist, they treated far fewer opioid users, a new study shows.

Land of the short white feather: New Zealand's unlikely bird flu success

BEIJING/WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The deadly bird flu that's forced mass bird culls and roiled the global egg and poultry trade has spawned one unlikely success – New Zealand, a rare source of disease-free birds and supplier for China's voracious chicken consumption.

Gilead hepatitis C drug patent faces European challenge

LONDON (Reuters) - International groups representing doctors and patients have launched a fresh challenge to the patent on Gilead Sciences' hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir at the European Patent Office in order to increase access to the treatment.

Most states don't require lifesaving heart device in schools

(Reuters Health) - Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are used to restart hearts after cardiac arrest and restore normal heartbeats, but a new study found only about one-third of U.S. states require schools to have the life-saving devices.