Health News Roundup: Croatia reports bird flu outbreak on poultry farm; Polish opposition to reinstate IVF funding in social policy shift and more

Makers of medical products used in bariatric surgery and glucose-monitoring devices have been trying to ease investor concerns over a potential hit to demand from the rising popularity of new GLP-1 drugs like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro. Texas AG sues Pfizer over quality-control lapses in kids' ADHD drug Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused Pfizer and its supplier Tris Pharma of providing children's ADHD medicine that it knew might be ineffective to the state's Medicaid insurance program for low-income people, in a lawsuit unsealed on Monday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

European Patent Office declares Moderna mRNA patent invalid

The European Patent Office declared a contested mRNA patent owned by Moderna invalid, the office said on Tuesday, handing a win to BioNTech and its partner Pfizer in a patent dispute between the two coronavirus vaccine makers. Moderna said in a statement that it disagreed with the office's decision and would lodge an appeal.

Polish opposition to reinstate IVF funding in social policy shift

Polish lawmakers started a debate on Wednesday to reinstate public financing for in-vitro fertilisation, marking a shift after eight years of nationalist rule which brought severe restrictions on women's reproductive rights. The Law and Justice government (PiS) lost its parliamentary majority in the Oct. 15 elections, paving the way for opposition parties from the centre-right to the left to form a ruling coalition.

Medtronic shrugs off concerns over newer weight-loss drugs, raises annual forecast

Medtronic raised its annual earnings forecast on Tuesday as strong sales in its surgical and diabetes units allayed concerns about the impact of new diabetes and weight-loss drugs on long-term growth, sending its shares up nearly 4% in morning trade. Makers of medical products used in bariatric surgery and glucose-monitoring devices have been trying to ease investor concerns over a potential hit to demand from the rising popularity of new GLP-1 drugs like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro.

Texas AG sues Pfizer over quality-control lapses in kids' ADHD drug

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused Pfizer and its supplier Tris Pharma of providing children's ADHD medicine that it knew might be ineffective to the state's Medicaid insurance program for low-income people, in a lawsuit unsealed on Monday. The lawsuit, filed in Harrison County, Texas District Court, alleges that Pfizer and Tris manipulated quality-control testing for the drug Quillivant XR in order to obtain passing results from tests it was required to perform under federal law between 2012 and 2018. Properly done tests frequently showed that the drug failed to dissolve as it was supposed to, a sign that it would not be released in the body as expected, the lawsuit said.

Germany reports bird flu outbreak in northern part of the country

Germany has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus on a poultry farm in the northern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Wednesday, adding to a wave of cases in Europe. The outbreak killed five poultry among a flock of 24,000 on a farm in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern east of Hamburg, the Paris-based WOAH said in a report, citing German authorities.

Croatia reports bird flu outbreak on poultry farm

Croatia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus on a poultry farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Tuesday. The outbreak infected five poultry among a flock of 19,600 on a farm in the county of Brodsko-Posavska near the Bosnian border, the Paris-based WOAH said in a report, citing Croatian authorities.

COVID-19 slowed global progress in tobacco control - report

Global progress in policies to reduce tobacco use slowed for the first time in 12 years following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysis published on Wednesday by the Global Tobacco Control Progress Hub, which warned millions of people worldwide likely continued to smoke as a result. The hub, a collaboration between the non-profit Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Canada and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, tracks the enactment of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global treaty aimed at reducing smoking.

US lawmakers ask SEC to scrutinize Musk comments on Neuralink

Four U.S. lawmakers have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Elon Musk committed securities fraud by allegedly misleading investors about the safety of a brain implant being developed by the billionaire’s firm Neuralink, according to a letter to the regulator. The request for an inquiry came from Democratic House Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, and Barbara Lee and Tony Cardenas of California, according to the letter sent to the SEC on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters.

Novo rations Ozempic starter kits amid surge in use for weight loss

Novo Nordisk will ration starter kits of Ozempic in Europe and reduce supplies of another diabetes drug, Victoza, to prioritise producing Ozempic, which has seen a surge in demand from people using it to lose weight. Ozempic contains semaglutide, an ingredient in Novo's hugely popular anti-obesity drug Wegovy. Ozempic is not officially approved to treat obesity, but that hasn't held back demand.

Cameroon receives first shipment of GSK's Mosquirix malaria vaccine

Cameroon received its first shipment of Mosquirix malaria vaccines manufactured by British drugmaker GSK Plc late on Tuesday, as the nation struggles with the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 600,000 each year globally. A batch of 331,200 doses of the vaccine - also known as RTS,S - was offloaded at Yaounde's Nsimalen International Airport, making Cameroon the first African country to receive the vaccine after pilot programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

(With inputs from agencies.)