Reuters - Health Report

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Thursday, October 19, 2017

White House says Trump opposes Senate's bipartisan Obamacare deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan deal from two senators to stabilize Obamacare by restoring subsidies to health insurers suffered major setbacks on Wednesday with the White House saying President Donald Trump now opposes it and senior Republicans speaking out against it.

China biotech's 'coming out party' masks long road ahead

LONDON/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Investors are betting on China's potential to feed the global pharmaceutical pipeline, putting a multi-billion-dollar price tag on a handful of stocks, even as the country struggles to close a huge R&D gap with the West.

Novo Nordisk takes aim at Eli Lilly with U.S. backing of new diabetes drug

WASHINGTON/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Novo Nordisk will take aim at Eli Lilly in the growing diabetes market after an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light to its semaglutide drug.

U.S. FDA approves Gilead cancer gene therapy; price set at $373,000

(Reuters) - U.S. regulators approved on Wednesday a new therapy for a type of lymphoma, which was developed by Gilead Science Inc's Kite Pharma, marking the second approval for this potentially revolutionary approach to fighting cancer.

McDonald's South Korea office raided in burger probe: reports

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean investigators raided the Seoul office of McDonald's Corp on Wednesday following a series of complaints that children fell ill after eating hamburger patties alleged to have been undercooked, Yonhap News Agency and other media said.

Cancer drug prices rising far faster than inflation

(Reuters Health) - The prices of injectable cancer drugs - even older medicines around since the 1990s - are increasing at a rate far higher than inflation, researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

U.S. judge says he may reject plea deal with Novelion's Aegerion

BOSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday said he may reject a plea agreement that was part of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc's recent $36 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, saying he was not happy with its sentencing terms.

Epidurals may not make labor last longer

(Reuters Health) - Giving pregnant women spinal anesthesia known as an epidural to ease their pain during the late stages of labor and delivery may not prolong the process, a new experiment suggests.

Allergan ruling casts doubt on tribal patent strategy

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge’s ruling on Monday invalidating Allergan Plc's patents on its blockbuster $1.5 billion dry-eye medicine, Restasis, has cast doubt on the company's novel strategy to enlist a Native American tribe to help shield those patents from challenge by generic drugmakers, legal experts said.

Health insurer Anthem takes pharmacy business in house, taps CVS to help

(Reuters) - Health insurer Anthem Inc will start managing its billions of dollars of patient prescriptions itself in 2020, it said on Wednesday, ending a deal with Express Scripts Holding Co that had deteriorated into lawsuits over terms.