Health News Roundup: Serum Institute to produce Ebola vaccine for use in Uganda outbreak; Eli Lilly to buy gene therapy company Akouos for $487 million and more

"We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70, but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%," study leader Alexandra White of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Safety (NIEHS) said in a statement. Addiction drug shows promise lifting long COVID brain fog, fatigue Lauren Nichols, a 34-year-old logistics expert for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Boston, has been suffering from impaired thinking and focus, fatigue, seizures, headache and pain since her COVID-19 infection in the spring of 2020.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Serum Institute to produce Ebola vaccine for use in Uganda outbreak

The Serum Institute of India plans to manufacture 20,000 to 30,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine by the end of November for use in trials against an outbreak in Uganda, its developers and a company source said. The response to Uganda's outbreak has been blunted by the absence of a proven vaccine against the Sudan strain of the virus.

Eli Lilly to buy gene therapy company Akouos for $487 million

Eli Lilly and Co will acquire genetic medicine developer Akouos Inc for about $487 million in cash as the drugmaker aims to bolster its arsenal of gene therapies that target a range of disabilities. Shares of Akouos, which is developing gene therapies for sensorineural hearing loss, soared 84% to trade 40 cents above Lilly's offer price of $12.50 before the opening bell.

J&J results beat estimates on cancer drug strength

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue and profit on strong demand for its cancer drug Darzalex while projecting an easing of supply-chain pressures next year on its consumer unit. The U.S. health conglomerate, which also sells medical devices and consumer health products such as Band Aid bandages and painkiller Tylenol, tightened its full-year adjusted profit forecast range. Its shares rose 1.5% to $169.01 in premarket trading.

Moderna signs deal on variant-adapted COVID shots for world's poorest

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) has agreed to provide its new variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine to the global scheme aiming to deliver shots to the world's poorest people. The biotech company and vaccine alliance GAVI will cancel their existing supply deal for vaccines based on the original coronavirus strain. Instead, Moderna will supply up to 100 million doses of its new, variant-adapted vaccines at its lowest available price from 2023.

S.Korea's LG Chem to invest $566 million to acquire U.S. Aveo Pharmaceuticals

South Korea's LG Chem Ltd said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it is investing $566 million to acquire U.S. firm Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc and enter the U.S. anti-cancer drug market. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, LG Chem said.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledge $1.2 billion to eradicate polio

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said on Sunday that it will commit $1.2 billion to support efforts to end all forms of polio globally. Polio is a highly infectious disease spread mainly through contamination by faecal matter, used to kill and paralyse thousands of children annually. While there is no known cure, three injections of the vaccine provide nearly 100% immunity.

U.S. nears record poultry deaths from bird flu; virus type complicates fight

A near-record number of U.S. chickens and turkeys have died in this year's outbreak of avian flu, as a different form of the virus than farmers battled before has infected more wild birds that then transmit the disease, officials said. More than 47 million birds have died due to infections and cullings. This has spurred export bans, lowered egg and turkey production, and contributed to record prices of the staples ahead of the U.S. holiday season. The outbreak exacerbates economic pain for consumers grappling with soaring inflation.

Trump administration blocked CDC transit mask mandate, report shows

Former President Donald Trump's administration at a crucial time in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 blocked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from adopting a federal mandate requiring face masks on airline flights and other forms of transit, a congressional report released on Monday said. Marty Cetron, a senior CDC official, is cited in the report as saying the federal public health agency began working on the proposed order in July 2020 after its experts determined that there was scientific evidence to support requiring masks in public and commercial transportation.

Hair-straightening products linked with uterine cancer risk -study

Hair-straightening products may significantly increase the risk of developing uterine cancer among those who use them frequently, a large study published on Monday suggests. "We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70, but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%," study leader Alexandra White of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Safety (NIEHS) said in a statement.

Addiction drug shows promise lifting long COVID brain fog, fatigue

Lauren Nichols, a 34-year-old logistics expert for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Boston, has been suffering from impaired thinking and focus, fatigue, seizures, headache and pain since her COVID-19 infection in the spring of 2020. Last June, her doctor suggested low doses of naltrexone, a generic drug typically used to treat alcohol and opioid addiction. After more than two years of living in "a thick, foggy cloud," she said, "I can actually think clearly." Researchers chasing long COVID cures are eager to learn whether the drug can offer similar benefits to millions suffering from pain, fatigue and brain fog months after a coronavirus infection. The drug has been used with some success to treat a similar complex, post-infectious syndrome marked by cognitive deficits and overwhelming fatigue called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Drawing on its use in ME/CFS and a handful of long COVID pilot studies, there are now at least four clinical trials planned to test naltrexone in hundreds of patients with long COVID, according to a Reuters review of Clinicaltrials.gov and interviews with 12 ME/CFS and long COVID researchers. It is also on the short list of treatments to be tested in the U.S. National Institutes of Health's $1 billion RECOVER Initiative, which aims to uncover underlying causes and find treatments for long COVID, advisers to the trial told Reuters.