Walmart's Medical Exit, Moderna's Bird Flu Push, and Biden's Drug Price Challenge

Walmart is in talks to sell its shuttered medical clinics. The U.S. has granted Moderna $176 million for bird flu vaccine development. President Biden urges Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to lower weight-loss drug prices. Grifols' unit reaches a debt refinancing deal. Mylan exits a DOJ antitrust probe.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Walmart has held talks to sell its shuttered medical clinics, Fortune reports

Walmart has held talks with potential buyers to sell its already shuttered medical clinics, Fortune reported on Tuesday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. In April, Walmart decided to close all 51 of its health clinics and shut its virtual healthcare operations, saying it could not see them as a sustainable business model to continue.

Bird flu concern prompts US to award Moderna $176 million for vaccine development

The U.S. government has awarded $176 million to Moderna to advance development of its bird flu vaccine, the company said on Tuesday, as concerns rise over a multi-state outbreak of H5N1 virus in dairy cows and infections of three dairy workers since March. Funds from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will be used to complete late-stage development and testing of a pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza.

Novo Nordisk, Lilly must cut US prices of weight-loss drugs, Biden says

U.S. President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders called on Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to reduce the prices of their weight-loss and diabetes drugs, in a jointly authored opinion piece published in USA Today on Tuesday. Surging demand for Novo and Lilly's drugs, which have been shown to help patients lose as much as 20% of their weight, has propelled their shares to record highs, and led some analysts to forecast the market for those treatments reaching $150 billion by the early 2030s.

Unit of Grifols shareholder Scranton reaches debt refinancing deal

Scranton Enterprises, an entity tied to the Grifols family, said on Tuesday it has reached an agreement with a private investor to refinance 377 million euros ($404.5 million) in debt of one of its units. Spanish drugmaker Grifols' market value has shed billions of euros since short-sheller Gotham City Research released a report in early January accusing the company of overstating earnings and understating debt. Grifols has repeatedly denied the claims.

US DOJ drops Viatris unit Mylan from industry-wide antitrust probe

Viatris unit Mylan is no longer a subject of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust investigation into alleged price fixing in the generic drug industry, the parent company said on Tuesday. Mylan and several major drugmakers such as Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries have been under the DOJ's scanner for more than eight years over alleged anticompetitive business practices in fixing prices of certain generic drugs.

Eli Lilly Alzheimer's drug approved by US FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Eli Lilly's treatment for early Alzheimer's, making it the second therapy for slowing progression of the brain-wasting disease that will be available to U.S. patients. The approval for donanemab, to be sold under the brand name Kisunla, followed the recommendations of the agency's outside experts, who unanimously backed its use in patients with early Alzheimer's disease, saying the benefits of the drug outweighed its risks.

US FDA to ban use of brominated vegetable oil in food, soda

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it would revoke the regulation that authorized the use of brominated vegetable oil in food items, effective Aug. 2, as it was no longer safe. BVO is a chemical ingredient containing bromine, which is found in fire retardants. Small quantities of BVO are used legally in some citrus-flavored drinks in the United States to keep the flavor evenly distributed.

US FDA warns website over unlawful sale of weight-loss drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it had warned a website called ozempen.com against unlawfully selling versions of Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drugs. Surging demand has outpaced supply for Novo's Ozempic, Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and other GLP-1 drugs that promote weight loss, fueling a growing global market for counterfeit versions.

US Supreme Court to hear fight over FDA denial of flavored vape products

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's defense of the agency's rejection of applications by two companies to sell flavored vape products that it has determined pose health risks for young consumers. The justices took up the FDA's appeal filed after a lower court ruled that the agency had failed to follow proper legal procedures under federal law when it denied the applications to bring their nicotine-containing products to market.

Pfizer v Moderna COVID vaccine patents battle set to continue after UK ruling

Pfizer and Moderna's legal battle over their rival COVID-19 vaccines looks set to continue after London's High Court gave a mixed ruling on two of Moderna's patents, likely prompting a flurry of appeals in the London leg of the litigation. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech sued Moderna in London in September 2022, seeking to revoke two patents held by Moderna, which hit back days later alleging its patents had been infringed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)