Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
GE HealthCare cuts revenue growth forecast for 2024 on China woes
GE HealthCare cut its revenue growth forecast for the year on Wednesday, as a freeze in China's healthcare sector due to an anti-corruption drive dragged down sales of its imaging machines and other medical equipment, sending its shares down 10%. Beijing kicked off the year-long crackdown on the sector in July last year, targeting the bribing of doctors in drug and medical equipment sales that sent a chill through the industry and pummeled healthcare stocks.
India's Aster DM Healthcare's Q1 profit rises on strong flu season-led demand
Indian hospital chain operator Aster DM Healthcare reported a rise in first-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by higher occupancy during the flu season. The company's quarterly consolidated profit from continuing operations surged 81.3% to 810 million rupees ($9.7 million) from a year ago. This excludes a gain of 51.48 billion rupees in the first quarter from the sale of its Gulf business.
Illicit nicotine pouches on the rise in US, Altria CEO says
Marlboro maker Altria said on Wednesday it had sent data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on growth in illegal nicotine pouches, saying it echoed the early stages of a now massive black market for vapes in the country. Cigarette makers like Altria and British American Tobacco have lost substantial U.S. sales to e-cigarettes that are being illegally marketed without FDA authorisation, including illegal disposable vapes from China.
Teva boosts forecasts as sales of generics, Huntington's disease drug jump
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries raised its annual forecasts on Wednesday, banking on strong demand for its cheaper copycat medicines, including a GLP-1 generic, and branded treatment for Huntington's disease. The drugmaker has been looking to launch six biosimilars by 2027, which, along with its branded medicines, is expected to drive growth.
WHO chief Tedros says polio detected in Gaza, appeals for action
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that polio had been detected in Gaza and warned that children in the war-ravaged enclave would soon be infected by the disease if preventative measures were not quickly taken. A day after the WHO said there were "very likely" polio cases among Gaza's population, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to social media platform X to flag concern about the human cost of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Siemens Healthineers hit by China order delays in Q3, but sees 2025 turnaround
German medical technology company Siemens Healthineers said on Wednesday its sales were hit by continued order delays in China in the third quarter, sending its shares more than 6% lower. Healthcare technology companies are grappling with China's anti-corruption campaign that has made promotional and sales activities harder in the country.
Heavy metal in most chocolates may not pose health risk, researchers say
Concentrations of heavy metals found in single servings of some chocolates and cocoa-based products are too low in most cases to pose a health risk to consumers, research set to be published on Thursday in the journal Frontiers shows. Some consumer groups and independent test agencies have previously reported heavy metal contamination in cocoa products such as dark chocolate, with possible causes being the type of soil where cocoa is grown and industrial processing.
GSK shares fall after sales of top two vaccines disappoint
British drugmaker GSK cut its forecast for 2024 vaccine sales on Wednesday after quarterly revenue from its blockbuster shingles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) jabs missed expectations, sending its shares lower. CEO Emma Walmsley's bet on infectious disease drugs and vaccines, including new blockbuster respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Arexvy, has been paying off as GSK faces a combination of patent expiries and declining revenue from current best-sellers by the end of this decade.
Indonesia raises smoking age limit, will curb cigarette advertising
Indonesia raised the minimum age limit for purchasing cigarettes to 21 from 18 as part of a series of changes to health regulations intended to curb the deadly habit in a country with one of the world's highest smoking rates. A country of 270 million people, Indonesia is one of the world's top producers of tobacco and there are about 70 million adult smokers there, the World Health Organization said in a 2021 survey.
India's Mankind Pharma misses Q1 profit expectations on higher costs
India's Mankind Pharma posted first-quarter profit below expectations on Wednesday, as higher costs offset strong demand for its drugs. The company, which makes Manforce condoms and Prega News pregnancy kits, said its consolidated net profit rose 10% to 5.36 billion rupees ($64 million) for the quarter ended June 30, missing analysts' average estimates of 5.77 billion rupees, as per LSEG data.
