Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

GSK pharma head flags need for speed in high-pressure drug market

Doing things one at a time in drug development is not a luxury that GlaxoSmithKline can afford any longer, the head of pharmaceuticals at Britain's largest drugmaker told Reuters. Luke Miels, who joined GSK in September 2017 after a contract dispute with his former employer AstraZeneca, said picking the most promising projects and developing them quickly now takes precedence over spreading the risk of failure.

Ebola's spread shows how science needs societies to succeed

The persistence of Congo's Ebola outbreak and its deadly spread to Uganda in recent days show how societal issues are as crucial as scientific advances in controlling disease outbreaks, specialists in global public health say. Medical scientists, prompted by a devastating West African Ebola epidemic between 2013 and 2016, have worked fast to develop cutting edge vaccines, treatments and antibody-based therapies they hoped would prevent or halt future outbreaks of the virus. That includes an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck & Co Inc that proved more than 95 percent effective in clinical trials.

U.S. records 22 new measles cases, bringing year's total to 1,044

The United States recorded 22 new measles cases last week, bringing the year's total number of cases to 1,044 in the worst outbreak of the disease since 1992, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html the number of cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease rose 2.2% in the week ended June 13 from the prior week. The 2019 outbreak, which has spread to 28 states, is the worst since 1992, when 2,126 cases were recorded.

VBI's shares plunge after hep B vaccine fails secondary goal in late-stage trial

VBI Vaccines Inc said on Monday a late-stage study was unsuccessful in showing two doses of its hepatitis B vaccine were as effective as three doses of an older vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline, sending its shares plunging 66%. The study tested VBI's Sci-B-Vac against GSK's Engerix-B, a vaccine which was approved in the United States in 1989.

Common nerve pain drug linked to suicidal behavior, overdose

A class of medications used for nerve and muscle pain, including the popular drug Lyrica, increases users' risks for suicidal behavior, unintentional overdoses, injuries and car accidents - and the risks are particularly high for teens and young adults, new research shows. Lyrica (pregabalin) and the older drug gabapentin, collectively known as gabapentinoids, are approved for treating several types of pain and for preventing seizures in patients with epilepsy. Prescribing of these medications has increased sharply in recent years, while off-label use, meaning for a condition other than the approved indication, is extremely common, Dr. Seena Fazel of the University of Oxford in the UK and colleagues write in the BMJ.

Eleven U.S. cancer centers get to charge more for care

For several decades, certain cancer centers have been allowed by the U.S. government to charge more for the care they give. A new study finds the care given at these centers isn't very different from that received at other top-notch facilities. Since the early 80s, the 11 centers have been exempt from the "Prospective Payment System," meaning they are allowed to charge much higher rates for Medicare and Medicaid patients compared to similar centers without being forced to justify that price difference, according to the report in JAMA Internal Medicine.

eSwatini bans imports of live pigs from countries affected by African swine fever

The Kingdom of eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, banned imports of live pigs on Monday from countries that test positive for African Swine Fever (ASF) after an outbreak of the disease in neighboring South Africa. The movement of pigs between farms will be strictly controlled, the director of veterinary and livestock services, Xolani Dlamini, said in a statement in the Swazi Observer.

Genetics research gets help from social media

Researchers have harnessed the power of social media to build a genetic database, according to a new report. The "Genes for Good" project, which turned to Facebook to recruit people to fill out surveys and send in saliva samples for DNA analysis, has thus far collected data from more than 27,000 volunteers.

Brain fever kills 97 children in east India

Nearly 100 children have died this month from encephalitis, commonly known as brain fever, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, a state health official said on Monday. Ninety-seven children had died and 146 were being treated for the disease, which occurs in seasonal outbreaks every summer, Shailesh Prasad Singh, a medical official in the Muzaffarpur district of the state, told Reuters.

When elders leave hospital, falls are big reason they return

Preventing falls among elderly patients who've just left the hospital is an important part of keeping them safe, a large U.S. study shows. When elderly patients are discharged, one of the major reasons they end up back in the hospital is that they've suffered a fall, researchers found.