Thai PM says cannabis to be re-listed as narcotic by end of 2024
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Wednesday that cannabis would be re-listed as a narcotic by end of 2024, in a stunning U-turn for the country two years after it became the first in the region to decriminalise its re...
May 08, 2024
Teva and Medincell's schizophrenia drug meets main goal of late-stage study
(Reuters) -Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals and French partner Medincell said on Wednesday their injectable form of a schizophrenia drug had met its main goal in a late-stage study. TEV-'749, an under-the-skin version of a generic antipsychotic drug c...
May 08, 2024
Europe in whooping cough epidemic as cases soar, says health agency
LONDON (Reuters) - Countries across Europe reported a huge rise in whooping cough cases in 2023 and the first three months of 2024, with ten times as many identified as in each of the previous two years. In total, there were nearly 60,000 cases rep...
May 08, 2024
McKesson misses quarterly estimates as US pharmaceuticals segment weighs
(Reuters) - McKesson Corp reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit on Tuesday due to slump in demand for the company's branded and specialty drugs that dragged sales in its U.S. pharmaceutical segment. The drug distributor's pharm...
May 07, 2024
Bio-Rad Laboratories reiterates 2024 revenue growth outlook; shares slip
(Reuters) - Diagnostics firm Bio Rad Laboratories reiterated its 2024 sales growth forecast on Tuesday, weighed by persistently weak spending by biotech companies and sluggish demand in China. The supplier of laboratory apparatus and instruments fo...
May 07, 2024
Pfizer reports patient death in Duchenne gene therapy study
(Reuters) - A young boy died due to a cardiac arrest in a mid-stage trial that tested Pfizer's experimental gene therapy for a muscle-wasting disorder called Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the drugmaker told Reuters on Tuesday. "A fatal serious...
May 07, 2024
Idaho will seek to revive 'abortion trafficking' law in US appeals court
By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) - Idaho will urge a federal appeals court on Tuesday to revive a 2023 law making it a crime to help a minor cross state lines for an abortion without her parent's consent, which a judge blocked in November. A three-judg...
May 07, 2024
AstraZeneca to withdraw Covid vaccine worldwide, The Telegraph reports
(Reuters) - Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca is withdrawing its Covid vaccine worldwide, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday. The application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on Tuesday, the report added. (Reportin...
May 07, 2024
Bankrupt Steward Health puts its hospitals up for sale, discloses $9 billion in debt
By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bankrupt Steward Health Care has put all of its 31 U.S. hospitals up for sale, hoping to finalize transactions by the end of the summer to address its $9 billion in total liabilities, its attorneys said at a ...
May 07, 2024
Florida sues Biden administration over new transgender healthcare rule
By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) - Florida's top prosecutor and a Catholic medical group on Tuesday sued the Biden administration in an effort to block a rule that they say will force doctors to provide gender transition care against their judgment or ...
May 07, 2024
US FDA panel to discuss Eli Lilly Alzheimer's drug on June 10
(Reuters) - Eli Lilly said on Tuesday a panel of independent U.S. FDA advisers will discuss whether the agency should approveits Alzheimer's disease drug, donanemab, on June 10. A possible approval for donanemab would pit it against a similar thera...
May 07, 2024
Tylenol maker Kenvue beats quarterly profit estimates, to cut 4% jobs
(Reuters) - Kenvue beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Tuesday, and said it would cut 4% of its global workforce amid the Tylenol and Band-Aid maker's efforts to expand its key brands. Since its spinoff from Johnson & Johnson in ...
May 07, 2024
Fresenius Medical beats earnings expectations, keeps outlook; shares sink
By Bartosz Dabrowski (Reuters) - Fresenius Medical Care beat first-quarter operating earnings expectations on Tuesday amid higher pricing and cost-cut savings, but the German company still maintained its profit outlook for 2024, sending its shares ...
May 07, 2024
US Social Security, Medicare finances get slight boost from stronger economy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trust funds supporting Social Security and Medicare benefits for U.S. seniors are showing some improvement due to stronger-than-forecast economic growth, productivity and immigration that is boosting revenue collections, acco...
May 06, 2024
US CDC asks states to make worker protective gear available to combat bird flu
(Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday it had met with state health officials and asked them to facilitate distribution of protective gear for farm workers to avoid infection against H5N1 bird flu. The ...
May 06, 2024
US FDA panel to discuss first psychedelic-assisted PTSD treatment next month
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's panel of independent advisers will on June 4 deliberate whether they should recommend approval for the first MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Lykos Therapeutics said on Mo...
May 06, 2024
Vertex tops Q1 profit estimates on robust demand for cystic fibrosis treatments
(Reuters) - Vertex Pharmaceuticals beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Monday, driven by robust uptake for its cystic fibrosis treatments. Cystic fibrosis (CF) - an inherited disorder that causes severe damage to the lungs, diges...
May 06, 2024
New York state sues group over abortion pill reversal claims
By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) - New York state's top prosecutor on Monday sued Heartbeat International, an anti-abortion group, and 11 crisis pregnancy centers, accusing them of misleading and potentially endangering women by claiming that they can ...
May 06, 2024
People with two copies of a risk gene have genetic form of Alzheimer's, scientists say
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who carry two copies of the APOE4 gene are virtually guaranteed to develop Alzheimer's and face symptoms at an earlier age, researchers reported on Monday in a study that could redefine such carriers...
May 06, 2024
U.S. hospital network Steward files for bankruptcy, aims for new loan
By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steward Health, which operates 30 hospitals in nine U.S. states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas on Monday, aiming to secure a new loan from its landlord Medical Properties Trust. The privately-owned...
May 06, 2024
Novavax's top shareholder Shah Capital ramps up efforts for board shakeup
(Reuters) - Hedge fund Shah Capital on Monday urged Novavax shareholders to vote against the re-election of three directors and proposals related to executive compensation, ramping up its efforts for a board shakeup at the COVID-19 vaccine maker. S...
May 06, 2024
Gossamer Bio and Chiesi Group to collaborate for blood pressure treatment
(Reuters) - Gossamer Bio said on Monday it will collaborate with Chiesi Group to develop and commercialize its drug seralutinib in multiple indications related to blood pressure conditions. Gossamer is to receive $160 million development reimbursem...
May 06, 2024
China should boost number of ICU beds, state agencies say
By Andrew Silver SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China should increase the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds over the next few years as part of its public health measures, several state agencies recommended in a joint statement published on Monday. The...
May 06, 2024
BioNTech says 90% of 2024 revenues will accrue at end of year
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's BioNTech, whose COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with Pfizer was widely used during the pandemic, said on Monday that almost all of its expected 2024 revenues would come in at the end of the year. BioNTech said in a s...
May 06, 2024
Canada toughens import requirements on US breeding cattle over bird flu concerns
(Reuters) - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has toughened import requirements on U.S. breeding cattle over the H5N1 bird flu virus, the agency said in a statement on Friday. The first confirmed case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (...
May 04, 2024