Health News Roundup: Merck-Eisai's uterine cancer therapy combo fails first-line treatment trial; WHO says more contaminated medicinal syrups found in new regions and more

The “African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator” aims to address the inequality in access to vaccines that plagued the continent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to use domestically-produced shots to tackle diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of African children every year, such as cholera and malaria. WHO says more contaminated medicinal syrups found in new regions The World Health Organization on Thursday said several contaminated syrups and suspension medicines had been identified in countries in the WHO regions of the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Merck-Eisai's uterine cancer therapy combo fails first-line treatment trial

Merck said a combination therapy being developed with partner Eisai failed a late-stage trial testing it as a first-line treatment for a type of cancer in the uterus lining, the two companies said on Friday. Merck's Keytruda and Eisai's Lenvima combination is already approved in the U.S. and other countries to treat certain types of advanced endometrial carcinoma in patients who have received prior systemic therapy.

US CDC issues health alert for subtype of mpox virus in Congo

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert on Thursday to notify clinicians and health departments about a deadly type of the mpox virus spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The CDC said it was alerting about the possibility of a subtype of the mpox virus called Clade I in travelers who have been in DRC.

Texas AG threatens to prosecute doctors in emergency abortion

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday threatened to prosecute any doctors involved in providing an emergency abortion to a woman, hours after she won a court order allowing her to obtain one for medical necessity. Paxton said in a letter that the order by District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin did not shield doctors from prosecution under all of Texas's abortion laws, and that the woman, Kate Cox, had not shown she qualified for the medical exception to the state's abortion ban.

India's Max Healthcare to buy Sahara Hospital in $113 million deal

India's Max Healthcare Institute said on Friday it would buy Sahara Hospital in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh for an enterprise value of 9.40 billion rupees ($112.76 million), as it looks to expand its operations in the country. The 550-bed Sahara Hospital treats about 200,000 patients every year and has a revenue potential of 2 billion rupees for fiscal 2024, Max Healthcare said in a statement.

AbbVie's $8.7 billion bet on Cerevel is risky but smart, analysts say

AbbVie's decision to buy Cerevel Therapeutics before key data on the drug developer's experimental schizophrenia treatment may have helped it avoid a potential bidding war but comes with several risks, analysts said. North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie said late Wednesday it would buy Cerevel for $8.7 billion, gaining a portfolio of drugs being tested for a range of neurological conditions, including emraclidine for schizophrenia.

New $1 billion plan for African vaccine manufacturing -GAVI Alliance

Up to $1 billion will be available to boost African vaccine manufacturing as part of a new scheme set up by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the global health organisation said on Thursday. The “African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator” aims to address the inequality in access to vaccines that plagued the continent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to use domestically-produced shots to tackle diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of African children every year, such as cholera and malaria.

WHO says more contaminated medicinal syrups found in new regions

The World Health Organization on Thursday said several contaminated syrups and suspension medicines had been identified in countries in the WHO regions of the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific. The affected products were manufactured by Pharmix Laboratories in Pakistan, the WHO said, and were first identified in the Maldives and Pakistan. Some of the tainted products have also been found in Belize, Fiji and Laos. Pharmix was not immediately available for comment.

US sets policy to seize patents of government-funded drugs if price deemed too high

The Biden Administration on Thursday announced it is setting new policy that will allow it to seize patents for medicines developed with government funding if it believes their prices are too high. The policy creates a roadmap for the government's so-called march-in rights, which have never been used before. They would allow the government to grant additional licenses to third parties for products developed using federal funds if the original patent holder does not make them available to the public on reasonable terms.

WHO 'very worried' about spread of mpox in DRC

The World Health Organization is “very worried” about the spread of a severe form of mpox that has killed nearly 600 people, mainly children, in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year, a senior official said. The country has reported over 13,000 cases in 2023, more than twice as many as during the last peak in 2020, with the disease occurring in almost every province. The WHO is working with the authorities on the response and a risk assessment.

HIV vaccine trial in Africa halted after disappointing data

A trial of an experimental HIV vaccine in Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa has been stopped early after preliminary data suggested it would not be effective in preventing infection, according to the trial's chief investigator. The news is the latest blow to efforts to find an effective vaccine against a virus that has so far claimed about 40 million lives globally. Another 39 million are living with HIV, the majority of them in Africa.