European Medicines Agency

The European Medicines Agency’s safety committee, on Friday, recommended pregnant women not use topiramate-containing medicines to prevent migraine or manage their body weight as their newborns could have a higher risk of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Health officials from around the world, as they gather to discuss a treaty addressing pandemic prevention next week, are struggling to agree on funding for developing countries and measures to thwart jumps by pathogens from animals into humans.

While a majority of adults recognize leukemia as a blood cancer, a new survey by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) found that a low percentage of respondents associate the following diseases with a blood cancer: lymphoma (including Hodgkin’s lymphoma), myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).

NovoLog, Novo Nordisk

Two U.S. senators are demanding that the nation’s three largest insulin makers, Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), Eli Lilly (LLY.N), and Sanofi (SASY.PA), provide details by Sept. 15 of their programs to help Americans get their insulin for $35 a month or less.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to three infant formula manufacturers, ByHeart Inc., Mead Johnson Nutrition (Reckitt), and Perrigo Wisconsin, LLC, reflecting findings from FDA inspections of these facilities over the last several months.

European Medicines Agency

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Wednesday its human medicines committee (CHMP) recommended authorizing Pfizer’s updated COVID-19 vaccine targeting the dominant XBB.1.5 variant of Omicron.

Canada has detected its first case of coronavirus infection from the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant of Omicron in a person in British Columbia who had not traveled outside the Pacific province, health officials said on Tuesday.

Despite improvements in China, air pollution across the globe continues to pose the greatest external risk to human health, with countries in Asia and Africa suffering most of the impact, new research showed on Tuesday.

An Australian scientist detailed on Tuesday a world-first discovery after an 8-cm (3-inch) -long parasitic worm was found in the brain of a woman in Canberra, spotlighting the risks of infectious organisms jumping between species.

A panel of independent advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet next month to make recommendations on updated COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the fall season, according to a U.S. government website on Friday.