Health News Roundup: Pfizer's rheumatoid arthritis drug shows benefit in COVID-19 pneumonia; Novartis prostate cancer drug receives U.S. FDA breakthrough designation and more

The therapy, REGEN-COV, has been granted emergency use authorisation for people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in the United States, but results from the RECOVERY trial provide the clearest evidence of its effectiveness among hospitalised patients. Delta variant fuelled 50% rise in English COVID prevalence -study The rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant has driven a 50% rise in infections in England since May, a large prevalence study led by Imperial College London found on Thursday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed the end of restrictions.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Pfizer's rheumatoid arthritis drug shows benefit in COVID-19 pneumonia

Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday its oral rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz reduced death or respiratory failure in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with pneumonia in Brazil, meeting the study's main goal. Results of the study, which tested the drug in 289 hospitalized adult patients with the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Novartis prostate cancer drug receives U.S. FDA breakthrough designation

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has received breakthrough therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an experimental treatment for advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer, the company said on Wednesday. Men with a deadly form of prostate cancer that has spread and who were not helped by other treatments on average survived four months longer after getting Novartis' Lu-PSMA-617 - a tumor-targeting radiation therapy - than those who received standard care, data from a clinical trial released earlier in June showed.

CureVac fails in pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial with 47% efficacy

German biotech CureVac NV said on Wednesday its COVID-19 vaccine was only 47% effective in a late-stage trial, missing the study's main goal and throwing in doubt the potential delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to the European Union.

The disappointing efficacy of the shot known as CVnCoV emerged from an interim analysis based on 134 COVID-19 cases in the study with about 40,000 volunteers in Europe and Latin America.

U.S. administers 312.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

The United States has administered 312,915,170 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed 375,186,675 doses in the country as of Wednesday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 311,886,674 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by June 15 out of 374,865,165 doses delivered.

China disease expert says COVID-19 origins probe should shift to U.S.- Global Times

A senior Chinese epidemiologist said the United States should be the priority in the next phase of investigations into the origin of COVID-19 after a study showed the disease could have been circulating there as early as December 2019, state media said on Thursday. The study, published this week by the U.S. National Institutes for Health (NIH), showed that at least seven people in five U.S. states were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, weeks before the United States reported its first official cases.

Regeneron's antibody therapy cuts deaths among some hospitalized COVID-19 patients -study

A COVID-19 antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Roche reduced deaths in hospitalized patients whose own immune systems had failed to produce a response, a large British study found on Wednesday. The therapy, REGEN-COV, has been granted emergency use authorization for people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in the United States but results from the RECOVERY trial provide the clearest evidence of its effectiveness among hospitalized patients.

Delta variant fuelled 50% rise in English COVID prevalence -study

The rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant has driven a 50% rise in infections in England since May, a large prevalence study led by Imperial College London found on Thursday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed the end of restrictions. The government said the data https://bit.ly/35rKhlp supported Johnson's decision to push back the end of COVID restrictions in England to July 19, citing the threat of the Delta variant first identified in India, and the need to vaccinate more people.

New Zealand lays out vaccine plan after grumbling over delay

New Zealand will take up to the end of the year to inoculate all those eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday, as she announced details of a vaccine campaign. The Pacific island nation shut its borders and used tough lockdown measures to become one of the few countries to have virtually eliminated COVID-19, but the government is facing criticism for a slow rollout of vaccines.

Australia limits use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people over 60

Australia will recommend only people over 60 receive AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, the country's Minister for Health Greg Hunt said on Thursday, following a spate of blood clots in those who have received the inoculation. Australia has administered 3.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and it has been linked to 60 cases of blood clots, the government has said. So far, two people have died, which Hunt said has driven the policy shift.

India reports 67,208 new COVID-19 cases, 2,330 deaths

India reported on Thursday 67,208 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed. The South Asian country's total COVID-19 caseload now stands at 29.70 million, while total fatalities are at 381,903, the data showed. India's coronavirus-related deaths rose by 2,330 overnight.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)