Reuters - Health Report

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Friday, November 3, 2017

China disputes Trump's claims of fentanyl 'flood' into United States

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's drug control agency disputed on Friday U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that most of the synthetic drug fentanyl at the heart of the U.S. opioid crisis was produced in China.

GSK and Gilead go head to head as HIV drugs enter new phase

LONDON (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline are heading for an HIV showdown, pushing rival treatment visions and competing products that are expected to hit the market in the next few months.

Teva shares topple on profit warning, uncertain future

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries , the world's biggest generic medicine maker, came under investor and market pressure on Thursday after saying it would miss 2017 profit forecasts.

Alnylam RNAi drug reverses progress of rare fatal disease: study

(Reuters) - More than half of patients with a rare, rapidly progressing often fatal genetic disorder experienced significant improvement after being treated with an Alnylam Pharmaceutical Inc drug that uses gene silencing technology, according to results of a late stage study presented on Thursday.

GSK gets boost for early cancer hopes with breakthrough status

LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline received a boost for its oncology research on Thursday when an experimental drug for blood cancer received a "breakthrough" designation from U.S. regulators.

Former GSK boss to lead new UK accelerated drug access scheme

LONDON (Reuters) - Former GlaxoSmithKline boss Andrew Witty is to lead a new British scheme to accelerate access to ground-breaking medicines for conditions such as cancer, dementia and diabetes from April 2018, the government announced on Friday.

AmerisourceBergen expects tumbling generic drug prices to settle

(Reuters) - AmerisourceBergen Corp said it expects stubbornly low generic drug prices, which have plagued drugmakers and wholesalers, to not deteriorate further next year, and brushed off concerns about Amazon's possible entry into the industry.

Good gut microbes may help immunotherapy drugs shrink tumors

LONDON (Reuters) - Cancer patients with high levels of good gut bacteria appear more likely to respond to immunotherapy, potentially opening up a new way to optimize the use of modern medicines that are highly effective but only work in some people.

Nestle to use cage-free eggs by 2020

ZURICH (Reuters) - Nestle, the world's largest packaged foods company, said it aims to use only eggs from hens that live outside of cages, becoming the latest foodmaker to react to concerns about animal welfare.

Labor lying down tied to higher odds of giving birth without interventions

(Reuters Health) - First-time mothers who have an epidural are more likely to have a vaginal birth without forceps or other interventions if they’re lying down rather than upright during labor, a UK study suggests.