Health News Roundup: US fentanyl-related deaths more than tripled over 5 years; WHO says risk 'moderate' after laboratory in Sudan seized by fighters and more

"The situation and the risk are being seen as moderate," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters at a briefing in Geneva. Amgen sues Novartis to block generic osteoporosis, bone cancer drugs Amgen Inc sued Novartis AG's Sandoz in New Jersey federal court Monday, accusing Sandoz's proposed versions of its multibillion-dollar bone-strengthening drugs Prolia and Xgeva of infringing several patents.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

US fentanyl-related deaths more than tripled over 5 years

The rate of drug overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl more than tripled in the United States from 2016 through 2021, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Wednesday. Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, and has increasingly been mixed with other illicit drugs often with lethal results.

WHO says risk 'moderate' after laboratory in Sudan seized by fighters

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had found after a risk assessment that there was a "moderate risk" related to the seizure of a public health laboratory in Sudan's capital Khartoum by one of the warring parties. "The situation and the risk are being seen as moderate," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.

Amgen sues Novartis to block generic osteoporosis, bone cancer drugs

Amgen Inc sued Novartis AG's Sandoz in New Jersey federal court Monday, accusing Sandoz's proposed versions of its multibillion-dollar bone-strengthening drugs Prolia and Xgeva of infringing several patents. Amgen asked the court to block Sandoz's biosimilars of the drugs until its patents expire. One of the patents named in the complaint does not expire until 2037.

Gilead, US square off in billion-dollar HIV drug patent trial

Gilead Sciences Inc is headed to trial in Delaware federal court this week to fight claims that it owes the U.S. government a share of multibillion-dollar profits from its HIV-prevention drug regimen. The government is seeking more than $1 billion from Gilead for allegedly failing to compensate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for discovering that Gilead's HIV-treatment drug Truvada could help prevent the disease.

North Carolina Republicans reach agreement on 12-week abortion ban

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina said on Tuesday they had reached agreement on a plan to limit most abortions to the first trimester of pregnancy, a sharp drop from the state's current limit of 20 weeks gestation. If passed, the proposed legislation would reverberate beyond North Carolina, limiting options for women who have been traveling there to obtain abortions after the deeply conservative Southern states where they live banned or more severely limited the procedure.

Utah judge temporarily blocks law ending licenses for abortion clinics

A court in Utah has stopped the state's Republican-dominated government from enforcing a new law that would effectively end abortions by making it impossible to get a license for a clinic where they are performed. Judge Andrew H. Stone of the Third District Court of the state of Utah ruled on Tuesday that abortion rights group Planned Parenthood, which had sued to block the law, was likely to prevail in its argument that the law is not reasonable.

Pfizer leans on COVID products to top estimates

Pfizer Inc on Tuesday reported higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue and profit, buoyed by demand for its COVID-19 products, and reaffirmed its 2023 earnings forecast as it banks on newer drugs to contribute to growth later this year.

The company has said it expects 2023 to be a low point for COVID product sales, before potentially returning to growth in 2024. But sales of both its vaccine and oral antiviral treatment came in above Wall Street estimates.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals sues U.S. government over drug trade secrets

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc has sued the federal government in Washington, D.C., federal court over accusations that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration passed trade secrets about its schizophrenia drug Fanapt and sleep-disorder medication Hetlioz to generic competitors. In a complaint made public Tuesday, Vanda said the agency disclosed confidential details from its applications for FDA approval to companies seeking to make generic versions of its drugs, and that it "routinely" reveals confidential information about brand-name drugs to generic drug applicants.

Australia to ban recreational vaping in e-cigarette crackdown

Australia said on Tuesday it will ban recreational vaping and tighten other aspects of e-cigarette laws in the biggest crackdown on the tobacco industry in more than a decade to try to stop an alarming rise in teenage vaping. The government aims to ban all disposable vapes, which often comes in fruity flavours, ban the import of non-prescription vapes and limit nicotine levels, aiming for the sale of vapes to be confined to helping smokers quit.

Group of EU states seeks to reduce dependency on China for pharmaceuticals

A group of 19 European Union member states are pushing for measures to reduce the bloc's dependency on Chinese imports of pharmaceutical ingredients, a paper dated May 2 showed. The move comes a week after the European Commission proposed an overhaul of the legislation governing its 136 billion euro ($148 billion) pharmaceuticals industry.