Breakthroughs and Challenges in Global Health: Cancer Therapies, Mpox Crises, and Bird Flu Outbreaks

This summary covers the latest health news including approvals of cancer therapies, increased funding for cancer research, the mpox outbreak in Africa, legal battles over generic drugs, and bird flu detections in Europe and North America. It highlights the ongoing developments in global public health and pharmaceutical advancements.

In a significant development, Astellas Pharma's gastric cancer therapy received approval from the UK's health regulator. The monoclonal antibody, used in combination with standard chemotherapy, aims to treat adults with specific types of stomach cancer.

In the United States, President Joe Biden announced an additional $150 million in funding for the 'Cancer Moonshot' program. This initiative aims to reduce the U.S. cancer death rate by half by 2047.

Meanwhile, Africa is grappling with an mpox outbreak. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declared a public health emergency, while Bavarian Nordic committed to donating 40,000 doses of the mpox vaccine.

In other news, Novartis faced a setback as a federal court denied their attempt to block a generic version of their heart-failure drug, Entresto. Cardinal Health raised its profit outlook citing strong demand for specialty drugs amid intense competition lowering generic drug prices.

On the agricultural front, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will expand bird-flu testing in response to an outbreak, with France reporting its first bird-flu case since January. Lastly, Illumina partnered with the Broad Institute to develop new CRISPR-based gene sequencing kits.

(With inputs from agencies.)