The following is a summary of current health news.
Genentech sues Biogen over royalties on blockbuster MS drug
Roche’s Genentech Inc sued Biogen MA Inc on Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, alleging that Biogen owes additional patent royalties from worldwide sales of its blockbuster drug for multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease, the Tysabri. Genentech’s lawsuit said Biogen owes royalties for all Tysabri that was produced using Genentech’s patents before the patents expired, even if it was later sold.
Lilly will cut some list prices by 70% and offer $25 worth of insulin
Eli Lilly and Co said Wednesday it will cut list prices by 70% for its most commonly prescribed insulin products, Humalog and Humulin, starting in the fourth quarter of this year, a move that could help millions of Americans pay your medicines. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker will also reduce the price of its Lispro insulin injection to $25 a vial and expand its insulin value program so that an existing cap of $35 for some insulins will apply to about 85% of US pharmacies.
US panel backs GSK vaccine, heating up race for RSV vaccine
A panel of outside advisers to the US health regulator on Wednesday backed GSK Plc’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, preparing it for a race with rival Pfizer to become the first US approved vaccine against the disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee unanimously voted in favor of the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing lower respiratory tract illness caused by RSV in adults aged 60 years and older, and voted 10 to 2 for its safety. Panelists seemed significantly more confident about the demographic profile used during the GSK study compared to Pfizer’s RSV vaccine, which was recommended by the FDA panel on Tuesday.
California fertility clinic sued for using embryo with deadly cancer gene
A California couple sued a Pasadena-based fertility clinic on Wednesday, saying it allegedly implanted an embryo carrying a rare gene that causes deadly stomach cancer and then falsified records to cover up its mistake. In their lawsuit against HRC Fertility filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jason and Melissa Diaz said their son, now one year old, will need surgery to completely remove his stomach at a young age to prevent or treat cancer. They said they went to HRC Fertility specifically to avoid having a child with the gene, which Jason carries.
Biden says other companies will cut insulin prices after Eli Lilly move
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that other pharmaceutical companies will have to cut their insulin prices following Eli Lilly’s decision to lower its prices for the popular diabetes treatment. Eli Lilly said on Wednesday it will cut list prices by 70% for its most commonly prescribed insulin products, Humalog and Humulin, starting in the fourth quarter of this year.
Bristol Myers wins $6.4 billion lawsuit over delay in cancer drugs
A US judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Bristol Myers Squibb Co of defrauding investors who would have received $6.4 billion if it had obtained federal approval within specified timeframes for drugs developed by the former Celgene Corp. , Bristol Myers has agreed to pay Celgene shareholders holding “contingent value rights” an extra $9 per share in cash if it obtains timely US Food and Drug Administration approvals for the cancer drug Breyanzi and two others. medicines.
China scoffs at FBI claim that leak from Wuhan lab likely caused COVID pandemic
The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan was likely to have caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, an allegation that China has said has “no credence.” “The FBI has for some time assessed that the origins of the pandemic are likely a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News.
Cardinal Health and McKesson prevail in Georgia family opioid trial
Drug distributors Cardinal Health Inc, McKesson Corp and JM Smith Corp on Wednesday won a Georgia trial in a case brought by families of opioid addicts accusing the companies of acting as drug dealers. A jury in the Glynn County Superior Court rendered its verdict after two days of deliberations, according to the Courtroom View Network, which broadcast live video of the trial. It was the first judgment of opioid claims filed by individual plaintiffs rather than government entities.
EU silence on Pfizer COVID contract negotiations is an issue that won’t go away -watchdog
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s silence over her dealings with drugmaker Pfizer leading to the EU’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine contract is damaging public confidence and is a problem that will not go away, her official said. ombudsman. “We need to hear what happened, otherwise it will drag on,” Emily O’Reilly said in an interview, pointing to the EU public prosecutor’s investigation into the bloc’s procurement of vaccines and plans by the European parliament’s COVID committee to carry out more audiences. about the subject. “So it just won’t go away.”
Pfizer/BioNTech Seeks US Approval for Updated COVID Vaccine Booster in Children Under 5
Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE have applied for emergency use authorization for their Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine in the United States as a booster dose for children aged six months to four years, the companies said on Wednesday. the vaccine is currently authorized by the US health regulator as the third dose of the country’s primary three-dose vaccination schedule for children in this age group. If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes the vaccine as a booster dose, children who complete the primary series – with three doses of the original Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or with two doses of the original vaccine and one dose of the adapted vaccine – would be eligible to receive the booster dose at least two months after completion of their primary series.