Health News Roundup: US Supreme Court halts Purdue Pharma bankruptcy settlement pending review; Novo Nordisk: weight-loss Wegovy drug's heart benefits will help discussions with payers and more

The lawsuit said that Novato, California-based Ultragenyx, which develops treatments for rare genetic diseases, uses the famous "HeLa" line of cells "like a dairy farm treats cows" to mass-produce materials for gene therapy. US suicide deaths reached record high in 2022, CDC data shows The number of people who died by suicide in the U.S. hit an estimated record 49,000 in 2022, a 2.6% increase over the prior year, government data showed on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

US Supreme Court halts Purdue Pharma bankruptcy settlement pending review

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a challenge by President Joe Biden's administration to the legality of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy settlement, putting on hold a deal that would shield its wealthy Sackler family owners from lawsuits over their role in the country's opioid epidemic. The justices paused bankruptcy proceedings concerning Purdue and its affiliates and said they would hold oral arguments in December in the administration's appeal of a lower court's ruling upholding the settlement. The Supreme Court's new term begins in October.

Novo Nordisk: weight-loss Wegovy drug's heart benefits will help discussions with payers

Novo Nordisk expects new data showing the heart benefits of its weight-loss drug Wegovy will help its discussions with public health authorities and other payers about the benefits of paying for it, executives said on Thursday. "This is a key piece of evidence when we have payer discussions on a global level in terms of the value of obesity care treatments," Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen said in a call with media after the company raised its full-year outlook.

U.S. hospital pharmacists ration drugs as shortages persist - survey

Nearly a third of U.S. hospital pharmacists say they were forced to ration, delay or cancel treatments as drug shortages in the United States approach an all-time high, according to a survey released on Thursday. The shortages are especially critical for chemotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment regimens, with more than half of the 1,123 surveyed saying they had to limit the use of such treatments.

Novo eyes other health benefits from weight-loss drug Wegovy after major trial

Novo Nordisk hopes to show additional health benefits from taking its hugely popular drug Wegovy, apart from losing weight and cutting the risk of heart disease, its drug development executive told Reuters on Thursday. The Danish drugmaker this week published headline results from its major SELECT trial, which showed that the weekly injection decreased the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 20%.

US FDA approves Johnson & Johnson's blood cancer therapy

Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its antibody-based therapy for patients with a difficult-to-treat type of blood cancer. The therapy, Talvey, belongs to a class of treatments called bispecific antibodies designed to bring a cancer cell and an immune cell together so the body's immune system can kill the cancer.

Obesity drug data could boost companies' case for US coverage-analysts

New data on the heart benefit of an obesity drug from Novo Nordisk increases the chances of a pay-off for it and Eli Lilly, which have spent a record amount on U.S. lobbying to win government backing for the drugs, analysts and experts said. U.S. law classifies weight-loss treatments as lifestyle drugs and bars Medicare from paying for them. Novo and Eli Lilly have spent nearly $1.3 million this year lobbying the U.S. Congress on obesity and specifically on a bill reintroduced in July that would allow the Medicare health plan to reimburse these medicines.

Japan lifts bans on Brazil's Espirito Santo chicken products -ministry

The Japanese government has agreed to lift restrictions on chicken products from Espirito Santo state which it imposed after reports of bird flu cases in local backyard flocks, Brazilian agriculture ministry said on Thursday. Japan, Brazil's second largest destination for chicken exports in the first half of this year, launched the bans on products from Espirito Santo in late June and from Santa Catarina state in mid-July.

Cano Health sinks on raising going concern doubts; announces job cuts

Cano Health said on Thursday there is substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern within one year, sending shares down about 48% after the bell. The health insurer, which went public in 2021 after merging with Sternlicht-backed SPAC, also said it is pursuing a process to sell itself and is continuing efforts to divest its non-core assets and business lines.

Henrietta Lacks' family sues Ultragenyx over use of HeLa cell line

The estate of Henrietta Lacks filed a lawsuit in Maryland federal court on Thursday accusing biopharmaceutical company Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical of unlawfully profiting from cells that were taken from Lacks' body without her consent during a medical procedure in 1951. The lawsuit said that Novato, California-based Ultragenyx, which develops treatments for rare genetic diseases, uses the famous "HeLa" line of cells "like a dairy farm treats cows" to mass-produce materials for gene therapy.

US suicide deaths reached record high in 2022, CDC data shows

The number of people who died by suicide in the U.S. hit an estimated record 49,000 in 2022, a 2.6% increase over the prior year, government data showed on Thursday. Over half of all U.S. suicides in 2022 involved firearms, according to the figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).