Reuters - Health Report

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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Thousands hit by malaria, dengue as South Asia's worst floods in a decade recede

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thousands of people are suffering from an outbreak of diarrhea, malaria and dengue in Bangladesh and Nepal as the waters from the worst floods in a decade recede, officials and aid agencies said on Wednesday.

Yemen's cholera epidemic hits 600,000, confounding expectations

GENEVA (Reuters) - Yemen's cholera outbreak has infected 612,703 people and killed 2,048 since it began in April, and some districts are still reporting sharp rises in new cases, data from the World Health Organization and Yemen's health ministry showed on Tuesday.

Roche lung cancer drug Alecensa slashes brain risk in tests

(Reuters) - Patients taking Roche's targeted lung cancer drug Alecensa have a far lower risk of their disease spreading in the brain than those on Pfizer's Xalkori, new clinical trial data show.

Novo Nordisk settles U.S. probe over diabetes drug for nearly $58.7 million

(Reuters) - Novo Nordisk will pay nearly $58.7 million to resolve claims the drugmaker's sales staff downplayed the importance of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-mandated warnings about the cancer risks of its diabetes medication Victoza.

Drugmaker Vectura's first-half revenue up 6 percent on rising sales of inhaled products

Vectura said revenue rose 6 percent in the first half of the year, driven by rising sales of its recently launched inhaled products and the continued weakness of sterling against a basket of its main trading currencies.

Novartis names drugs chief as CEO to deliver return to growth

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez will step down on Feb. 1 and hand over to drug development chief Vas Narasimhan to decide the fate of $50 billion in assets and make good on a pledge to return the Swiss company to sales growth.

France's Servier to face trial over Mediator weight-loss drug

PARIS (Reuters) - Drug maker Servier and the French drug regulator will face trial over weight-loss pill Mediator, believed to have caused at least 500 deaths in one of France’s worst health scandals, the prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

U.S. judge invalidates Mallinckrodt patents on respiratory treatment

(Reuters) - A federal judge in Delaware on Tuesday invalidated patents held by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals on its Inomax respiratory treatment system.

Anti-HIV pill safe among gay, bisexual adolescent boys

Reuters Health - A pill that protects against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be safely used by young men who have sex with men, according to a new study.

In nursing homes, more independence tied to higher fracture risk

Reuters Health - Seniors living on their own may have a greater risk of fractures when they’re less mobile and less able to manage daily tasks without help, but in nursing homes the opposite may be true, a recent study suggests.