Global Health Briefs: Updates on Mpox, Obesity Pills, Herpes Vaccine, and More

A roundup featuring Congo's early launch of the mpox vaccine drive, trial results from Roche and Novo Nordisk on obesity medications, GSK's failure with an experimental herpes vaccine, and updates from FDA about various medical drugs and practices.

Among today's top health stories, Congo has accelerated the start of its mpox vaccine campaign to Oct. 2 amidst a major outbreak. The World Health Organization recently declared mpox a global public health emergency, although vaccine shortages have hampered containment efforts.

In pharmaceutical developments, Roche revealed that its early trials for an obesity pill, which initially looked promising, were based on a small group of just six patients. Novo Nordisk also reported mild-to-moderate side effects for its new obesity drug in early trials, with participants showing significant weight loss.

Furthermore, GSK announced its herpes simplex virus vaccine did not meet the primary goals in middle-stage trials. In the realm of regulatory news, the U.S. FDA expanded the use of Johnson & Johnson's drug Tremfya for inflammatory bowel disease and issued warnings to two Chinese labs for data integrity issues.

(With inputs from agencies.)