Reuters Health News Summary

08/09/2016 8:59

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Record new HIV cases in Philippines prompt call for action

The Philippines has posted a record number of new HIV infections, prompting campaigners to call on authorities to step up efforts to battle the potentially deadly disease. A total of 841 new cases were recorded in June, the highest ever monthly figure since the country's first reported case in 1984, according to the health department's latest statistics released this week.

Eisai: FDA confirms enough data to move Alzheimer's drug to Phase III studies

Japan's Eisai Co said on Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had confirmed that there was sufficient data to start Phase III studies of a drug it is co-developing to treat early Alzheimer's disease. The investigational oral beta-secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor E2609 was discovered by Eisai and is being jointly developed with Massachusetts-based Biogen Inc, Eisai said in a statement.

Future of drug pricing: paying for benefits not per pill

Global pressure on health spending is forcing the $1 trillion-a-year pharmaceutical industry to look for new ways to price its products: charging based on how much they improve patients' health, rather than how many pills or vials are sold. In the United States, both parties are promising fresh action on drug prices whoever wins the White House. In Europe, economies are stalled, squeezing state health budgets. And in China and other Asian markets, governments are getting tougher with suppliers.

Florida is investigating apparent new case of locally transmitted Zika

Florida health officials are investigating a new case of the Zika virus in Palm Beach County that appears to be a local transmission, Governor Rick Scott said in a statement on Monday. The person recently traveled to Miami-Dade County, though Scott's statement did not specify exactly where.

Mesoblast cell treatment shows promise in rheumatoid arthritis : study

Mesoblast Ltd on Monday said its experimental stem-cell treatment led to significant improvements of symptoms and disease activity in patients whose rheumatoid arthritis had stopped being helped by widely used biotech medicines, according to data from a mid-stage trial. Treatment with the Australian company's mesenchymal precursor cell (MPC) product, MPC-300-IV, was deemed well tolerated with no serious side effects or infusion-related adverse events in the 48-patient, 12-week Phase II study, the company said.

AstraZeneca drug selumetinib fails in lung cancer study

AstraZeneca's cancer drug pipeline suffered a setback on Tuesday when the experimental drug selumetinib failed to meet its goal in a late-stage trial for lung cancer. Hopes for the medicine had already been reduced after it failed in another study for treating a rare cancer of the eye in July 2015, although it may still have a role in a type of thyroid cancer and in cancers growing along nerve tissue.

Cool temperatures, few mosquitoes make Games Zika-free, so far

So far, at the Olympics many feared would be the Zika Games, so good. With as many as one million people expected to attend the spectacle, half of them foreigners, Rio de Janeiro has not turned out to be the Zika hothouse some athletes and visitors feared as the virus wreaked havoc in Brazil earlier this year.

Shareholders press Yum for stricter antibiotics policy

Yum Brands Inc investors on Tuesday filed a shareholder proposal requesting that it quickly phase out harmful antibiotic use in its meat supply, taking aim at the practices of the company's KFC fried chicken chain. The proposal from shareholder activists As You Sow, of Oakland, California, and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia comes as KFC lags rivals McDonald's Corp, Chick-fil-A, Subway and Wendy's Co in setting policies to curb the routine use of antibiotics in chicken production.

Cayman Islands reports first locally transmitted Zika case: government

The first locally contracted case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in the Cayman Islands, the Caribbean nation's health department said. The patient, a man, reported the first symptoms in late July and a sample was sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency for testing. He had not traveled to any countries in which Zika is present, the department said in a statement late on Monday.

Air pollution tied to shorter survival with lung cancer

(Reuters Health) - Exposure to air pollution has long been associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, and a new study suggests it might also be tied to a faster death from the disease. Researchers examined cancer registry data on more than 350,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in California and found patients who lived in communities with higher than average levels of air pollution typically died sooner than their peers who lived in places with cleaner air.

08/09/2016 8:59