Medical Xpress reported:

As the H5N1 avian flu continues to spread among dairy cows in the United States, nearly 5 million doses of flu vaccine are now being prepared for possible use in humans.

Since the outbreak in livestock began this spring, bird flu has been confirmed in three humans who worked on dairy farms in Texas and Michigan and health experts are concerned the virus could mutate to the point where it could spread easily among humans.

In response, vaccine maker CSL Seqirus announced last week that it has been tasked with making additional doses of flu vaccine at its North Carolina plant. “It utilizes a highly scalable method of production and is currently positioned to deliver up to 150 million influenza vaccine doses to support an influenza pandemic response within six months of a pandemic declaration,” the company noted in a news release.

The new vaccine doses combine an antigen that targets the H5 portion of the H5N1 virus with an ingredient designed to boost the immune response triggered by the vaccine.

The BMJ via Medical Xpress reported:

Excess death rates have remained high in the West for three years running since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a data analysis of 47 countries published in BMJ Public Health.

This is despite the implementation of various containment measures and the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, giving rise to “serious cause for concern,” say the researchers, who call on governments and policymakers to thoroughly investigate the underlying causes.

They conclude, “Excess mortality has remained high in the Western world for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of COVID-19 containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. This is unprecedented and raises serious concerns.

“Government leaders and policymakers need to thoroughly investigate underlying causes of persistent excess mortality and evaluate their health crisis policies.”

Reuters reported:

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) must pay $260 million to an Oregon woman who said she got mesothelioma, a deadly cancer linked to asbestos exposure, from inhaling the company’s talc powder, a jury found on Monday.

The verdict in the 4th Judicial District Circuit Court in Portland comes as the company continues to pursue a proposed $6.48 billion settlement of most talc-related lawsuits against it through a prepackaged bankruptcy. The jury’s award includes $60 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages and includes damages for both the plaintiff and her husband.

The plaintiff in the case, Kyung Lee, was diagnosed last year with mesothelioma at age 48.

J&J faces lawsuits from more than 61,000 plaintiffs over talc. The vast majority are by women with ovarian cancer, with only a small minority involving people with mesothelioma. The company has settled most of the mesothelioma cases.

Shares of GSK (GSK.L) dropped more than 9% on Monday after a Delaware judge allowed more than 70,000 lawsuits alleging its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, to go forward, in a blow for the British drugmaker.

GSK said it disagreed with the ruling and would immediately appeal. Its shares were down 9.4% at 16 pounds by 1052 GMT, on course for their worst day since August 2022, with the drop wiping out nearly 7 billion pounds ($8.90 billion) of the company’s market value.

Following the ruling, analysts at J.P. Morgan said the potential liability that GSK could face from the litigation is likely higher than the $2 billion to $3 billion figure assumed by the market.

Quartz reported:

Structure Therapeutics stock jumped 65% to $56 per share on Monday after the biopharmaceutical company released promising clinical trial results for its experimental weight loss pills. It’s the latest development in the race among several pharmaceutical companies to introduce new weight loss drug alternatives to the current market leaders Wegovy, Zepbound, and Ozempic.

A small clinical study found that patients taking a daily dose of Structure’s experimental weight loss pill GSBR-1290 lost a 6.2% placebo-adjusted average of their weight after 12 weeks. About 67% of patients taking the pill lost over 6% of their weight and about 33% lost over 10% of their weight.

The news comes as several companies including market leaders Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are developing weight loss pills to help with the skyrocketing demand of GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Ozempic.

AboutLawsuits.com reported:

As the popularity of Ozempic and similar drugs used for diabetes and weight loss grows, so do concerns over their side effects, which a new study now says include psychological changes that may affect decision-making skills and increase the risk that users engage in risky behaviors.

Researchers from the U.K. say a class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GPL-1) agonists may cause impulse control disorders that could lead to sudden, poor life choices, potentially resulting in sudden divorces and addictive behaviors, according to findings published last month in The Quarterly Journal of Medicine.

The new research highlights concerns that adoption of the drugs has outpaced the ability of independent researchers to complete thorough studies on the potential side effects of Ozempic and other GLP-1.