Health News Roundup: Genentech sues Biogen for royalties on blockbuster MS drug; Lilly to cut some list prices by 70% and offer $25 insulin and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Genentech sues Biogen for royalties on blockbuster MS drug

Roche's Genentech Inc sued Biogen MA Inc on Tuesday in San Francisco federal court, claiming Biogen owes additional patent royalties from worldwide sales of its blockbuster multiple-sclerosis and Crohn's disease drug Tysabri. Genentech's lawsuit said Biogen owes royalties for all the Tysabri that was produced using Genentech's patents before the patents expired, even if it was sold later.

Lilly to cut some list prices by 70% and offer $25 insulin

Eli Lilly and Co on Wednesday said it will cut list prices by 70% for its most commonly prescribed insulin products, Humalog and Humulin, beginning from the fourth quarter of this year, a move that could help millions of Americans afford their medicine. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker also will lower the price of its Lispro insulin injection to $25 a vial and expand its insulin value program so that an existing $35 cap on some insulins will now apply in about 85% of U.S. pharmacies.

US panel backs GSK vaccine, heating up RSV vaccine race

A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. health regulator on Wednesday backed GSK Plc's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, setting it up for a race with rival Pfizer to become the first approved U.S. shot against the disease. The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) advisory committee voted unanimously in favor of the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in adults aged 60 and above, and voted 10 to 2 for its safety. The panelists seemed significantly more confident about the demographic profile used during the GSK study in comparison to Pfizer's RSV vaccine, which was recommended by the FDA panel on Tuesday.

California fertility clinic sued for using embryo with deadly cancer gene

A California couple sued a Pasadena-based fertility clinic on Wednesday, saying it allegedly implanted an embryo carrying a rare gene that causes deadly stomach cancer and then falsified records to cover up its mistake. In their lawsuit against HRC Fertility, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jason and Melissa Diaz said their son, now a year old, will require total stomach removal surgery as a young adult to prevent or treat the cancer. They said they went to HRC Fertility specifically to avoid having a child with the gene, which Jason carries.

Biden says other companies will slash insulin prices after Eli Lilly move

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that other pharmaceutical companies will have to lower their insulin prices in the wake of Eli Lilly's decision to slash its prices for the popular diabetes treatment. Eli Lilly said on Wednesday it will cut list prices by 70% for its most commonly prescribed insulin products, Humalog and Humulin, beginning from the fourth quarter of this year.

Bristol Myers wins dismissal of a $6.4 billion lawsuit over cancer drug delay

A U.S. judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Bristol Myers Squibb Co of defrauding investors who stood to receive $6.4 billion had it won federal approval by specified deadlines for drugs developed by the former Celgene Corp. In connection with its $80.3 billion purchase of Celgene in 2019, Bristol Myers had agreed to pay Celgene shareholders holding "contingent value rights" an extra $9 per share in cash if it won timely U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals of the Breyanzi cancer drug and two other drugs.

China scoffs at FBI claim that Wuhan lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic

The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever". "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News.

Cardinal Health, McKesson prevail in Georgia families' opioid trial

Drug distributors Cardinal Health Inc, McKesson Corp and JM Smith Corp on Wednesday prevailed at trial in Georgia in a case brought by families of opioid addicts accusing the companies of acting as drug dealers. A jury in Glynn County Superior Court handed down the verdict after two days of deliberations, according to Courtroom View Network, which carried live video of the trial. It was the first trial of opioid claims brought by individual plaintiffs, rather than government entities.

EU silence over Pfizer COVID contract talks is problem that won't go away -watchdog

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s silence about her dealings with drugmaker Pfizer leading to the EU's biggest COVID-19 vaccine contract is hurting public trust and is a problem that will not go away, its ombudsman said. “We need to hear what went on, otherwise it’s going to drag on,” Emily O’Reilly said in an interview, pointing to the EU public prosecutor's investigation of the bloc's acquisition of vaccines and the European parliament's COVID committee's plans to hold more hearings on the issue. "So it just won't go away."

Pfizer/BioNTech seeks U.S. nod for updated COVID vaccine as booster in kids under 5

Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE have applied for emergency use authorization of their Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine in the United States as a booster dose for children aged six months through four years, the companies said on Wednesday.The Omicron-adapted vaccine is currently authorized by the U.S. health regulator as the third dose of the three-dose primary course of vaccination in the country for children in this age group. If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes the vaccine as a booster dose, children who have completed their primary series - either with three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech's original vaccine or with two doses of their original and one dose of the adapted vaccine - would be eligible to receive the booster dose at least two months after the completion of their primary series.