Reuters Health News Summary

09/20/2016 8:56

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Bowing to pressure, FDA approves Sarepta's Duchenne drug

Bowing to pressure from patient advocates, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy even though an outside panel of experts and the agency's own reviewers questioned the drug's efficacy. The FDA's lead reviewer, Dr. Ronald Farkas, recently quit the agency after issuing a scathing report criticizing the quality of the data presented by Sarepta Therapeutics Inc, developer of the drug Exondys 51, known also as eteplirsen.

Florida declares neighborhood Zika-free, but CDC remains cautious

U.S. health officials on Monday urged pregnant women to consider putting off nonessential travel to Miami due to the Zika virus even as they lifted a travel warning for one neighborhood. Earlier in the day, Florida's governor declared the neighborhood of Wynwood Zika-free and invited visitors to return. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention left in place a travel warning issued on Aug. 19 for nearby Miami Beach even as it discontinued one issued on Aug. 1 for Wynwood due to local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus that can cause serious birth defects.

Bayer raises sales targets for top-selling drugs after Monsanto deal

German drugmaker Bayer said its two best-selling drugs had a higher annual peak sales potential than previously targeted, after the agreed $66 billion takeover of Monsanto stirred criticism it might neglect its pharmaceuticals business. Bayer now expects annual peak sales of more than 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) for stroke prevention pill Xarelto, jointly sold with Johnson & Johnson, where it had previously seen about 3.5 billion.

Wearable device helps reduce low blood sugar episodes

A new "flash" blood sugar monitoring system cuts down on episodes of low blood sugar in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers say. Low-blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, can be dangerous in diabetics. Sometimes called an insulin reaction, or insulin shock, severe cases of hypoglycemia can lead to unconsciousness and seizures.

Novartis intensifies Entresto push with new analysis

Novartis on Monday intensified its bid to convince doctors to prescribe its heart failure drug Entresto, releasing an analysis that concluded the medicine contributed to higher quality of life scores compared with an older drug. The decline in health-related quality of life scores among patients hospitalized with reduced ejection fraction heart failure was less steep among Entresto patients compared to those taking the drug enalapril, Switzerland's Novartis said in a statement.

GSK cuts vaccine price for refugees, bowing to pressure

GlaxoSmithKline is cutting the price charged for its pneumococcal vaccine when given to refugees, following complaints about the product's "exorbitant" cost by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. The British drugmaker said on Monday it would provide Synflorix, which protects children against pneumonia and other diseases, at a discounted price of $3.05 per dose to recognized civil society organizations.

Indonesia rejects U.S. research estimate of 100,000 'haze' deaths

Harvard and Columbia university research showing smoke from land fires in Southeast Asia led to more than 100,000 premature deaths last year "makes no sense at all," an official at Indonesia's Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Indonesian government records show only 24 deaths related to forest fires in 2015, but the disaster was estimated to have left more than half a million Indonesians suffering from respiratory ailments.

Drugmakers pledge to clean up antibiotic factories, curb overuse

Thirteen leading drugmakers promised on Tuesday to clean up pollution from factories making antibiotics and take steps to curb overuse of the medicines as part of a drive to fight the rise of drug-resistant superbugs. The industry announcement coincides with a high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance as part of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

GlaxoSmithKline names insider Emma Walmsley as new CEO

GlaxoSmithKline said on Tuesday it had chosen its head of consumer healthcare, Emma Walmsley, as its new chief executive, after several months reviewing internal and external candidates. She will become the first woman to head a top global pharmaceutical company and will bring the number of female chief executives in Britain's FTSE 100 index to seven.

Codeine not safe for kids, doctors warn

(Reuters Health) - Codeine isn't safe for children and shouldn't be used to ease pain or relieve coughs, a leading U.S. pediatricians group warns. Codeine has been prescribed for decades for both purposes, despite mounting evidence that it doesn't always work and sometimes causes serious or potentially fatal side effects, doctors argue in a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

09/20/2016 8:56