Today's Top Health News Story
Novartis $2 million gene therapy for rare disorder is world's most expensive drug
ZURICH/NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Friday won U.S. approval for its gene therapy Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of death in infants, and priced the one-time treatment at a record $2.125 million. Learn More
More Top Health Stories
Groups sue over Alabama abortion law; judge blocks Mississippi ban
(Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging a law enacted by Alabama last week that bans nearly all abortions and makes performing the procedure a felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison. More »
Doctor, medical funder charged in New York in transvaginal mesh fraud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A doctor and a surgical funding consultant were arrested on Friday on charges that they defrauded women into having unnecessary surgeries to remove transvaginal mesh implants in order to profit from settlements paid to the women by mesh manufacturers, U.S. prosecutors in New York said. More »
U.S. health agency proposes reversing Obamacare transgender protections
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday proposed a rule that would roll back protections for transgender patients under Obamacare, the second rule this month the agency has put forward to allow health care providers to deny services to them. More »
Novartis' breast cancer treatment wins FDA approval
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday that it had approved Novartis AG's treatment in combination with a hormone therapy for postmenopausal women, as well as for men, with a form of advanced breast cancer. More »
Oklahoma takes on drugmakers J&J, Teva in landmark opioid trial
(Reuters) - Gail Box vividly remembers the day in May 2011 when she first learned her 22-year-old son Austin, a University of Oklahoma linebacker, was abusing opioid painkillers: It was the day he died of an overdose. More »
Women in cardiac arrest less likely than men to get help from bystanders
(Reuters Health) - Women who suffer cardiac arrest outside of a hospital are less likely to receive help from bystanders and have less chance of survival than men, a recent Dutch study showed. More »
Mexico budget cuts hit patient care and delay kids' surgeries, doctors warn
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's hospitals are reeling under steep budget cuts by the country's new government, with surgery delays for children, reductions in testing and staffing shortages, hospital directors said on Friday, fanning anger over President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's austerity measures. More »
Seniors who feel their life has purpose may live longer
(Reuters Health) - Seniors who feel their life has purpose may be less likely to die from heart, circulatory and digestive diseases and more likely to live longer, new data suggest. More »
Big drug distributor pays $22 million to settle U.S. opioid charges
(Reuters) - Morris & Dickson Co, one of the largest U.S. wholesale drug distributors, agreed to pay $22 million in civil penalties to settle U.S. government charges that it failed to report thousands of suspicious orders of the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone. More »
