Health News Roundup: US FDA staff flags concerns about Merck's chronic cough drug; EU to renew herbicide glyphosate approval for 10 years and more

Peer CVS Health also said it plans to shut all of its non-24-hour pharmacy locations early next Thursday, while Rite Aid said its pharmacies will be closed but retail stores will remain open. US FDA approves CorMedix's drug for bloodstream infections The U.S. health regulator on Wednesday approved CorMedix's antimicrobial drug for reduction of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) in patients with kidney disease, allowing the company to launch its first commercial product.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

EU to renew herbicide glyphosate approval for 10 years

The European Union will extend glyphosate's authorisation for 10 years, even though its member states failed to agree over the active ingredient in Bayer AG's Roundup weedkiller. Glyphosate has proved divisive since the World Health Organization's cancer research agency concluded in 2015 that it was probably carcinogenic to humans. Other agencies around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and EU agencies, have classified it as non-carcinogenic.

US FDA staff flags concerns about Merck's chronic cough drug

The U.S. health regulator's staff on Wednesday flagged concerns that data on Merck's chronic cough drug might not be enough to prove the treatment's meaningful benefit, documents released ahead of a meeting of independent experts showed. The drugmaker's shares were marginally down in afternoon trade.

Eli Lilly to invest 2 billion euros to build first German production plant -source

U.S. pharmaceuticals company Eli Lilly plans to build a production plant in western Germany, sources close to the matter told Reuters, with one putting the investment at 2 billion euros ($2.17 billion). The new site, Lilly's first major production complex in Germany, comes as drugmakers are growing increasingly sensitive to political pressure to manufacture critical healthcare products closer to the markets they serve after the coronavirus pandemic exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains.

Walgreens to close nearly all pharmacies on Thanksgiving for first time

Walgreens Boots Alliance will close nearly all of its stores and pharmacies on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in the chain's history, amid pushback from pharmacists and technicians over poor work conditions and under-staffing. Peer CVS Health also said it plans to shut all of its non-24-hour pharmacy locations early next Thursday, while Rite Aid said its pharmacies will be closed but retail stores will remain open.

US FDA approves CorMedix's drug for bloodstream infections

The U.S. health regulator on Wednesday approved CorMedix's antimicrobial drug for reduction of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) in patients with kidney disease, allowing the company to launch its first commercial product. The company plans to ready the drug for commercialization by end of the first quarter of 2024, CorMedix CEO Joe Todisco told Reuters.

3M names new healthcare spinoff as Solventum

U.S. industrial conglomerate 3M said on Thursday its independent healthcare business would be called Solventum following its spinoff. 3M disclosed plans to spin off its healthcare business into a listed company last year, in which the U.S. industrial giant would retain a 19.9% stake.

No more needles? Gates Foundation funds patch-style vaccine technology

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $23.6 million to U.S.-based life science company Micron Biomedical to fund the first ever mass production of needle-free vaccine technology. The technology works by delivering the vaccine via dissolvable microneedles attached to the skin on a patch-like device.

'Staggering' rise in measles cases last year, says WHO and CDC

There was a “staggering” annual rise in measles cases and deaths in 2022, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases jumped by 18% to an estimated 9 million, and deaths to 136,000, mostly among children, the health agencies said in a joint statement on Thursday.

UK authorises gene therapy for blood disorders in world first

Britain has authorised a gene therapy that aims to cure sickle-cell disease and another type of inherited blood disorder for patients aged 12 and over, the country's medical regulator said on Thursday, becoming the first in the world to do so. Casgevy is the first medicine to be licensed that uses the gene-editing tool CRISPR, which won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020, Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said.

Bankrupt Rite Aid sues US Justice Dept to stop opioid lawsuit

Rite Aid sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, seeking to stop a lawsuit alleging that the bankrupt pharmacy chain ignored red flags and illegally filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for addictive opioid medication. The DOJ, which sued Rite Aid in March, agreed only to a "brief pause" of its lawsuit after Rite Aid went bankrupt last month, a position that threatens to undermine the company's restructuring efforts, Rite Aid said in a complaint filed on Thursday in New Jersey bankruptcy court.

(With inputs from agencies.)