75,320 tobacco-attributable deaths in 2015, a lab in the dock for the first time in the opioid crisis, and a $2.1 million treatment soon to hit the US market. Here is the main news.
Addiction: 75,320 tobacco-attributable deaths in 2015
Public Health France announces this Tuesday that tobacco has made 75 320 deaths in metropolitan France in 2015, i.e. more than one in eight deaths. These deaths are due to lung cancer in 61.7% of cases, cardiovascular disease in 22.1% of cases and respiratory pathology in 16.2% of cases. For comparison, a previous report published in 2016 and covering the year 2013, counted 73,000 deaths. In detail, in 2015, 19% of all men who died in France succumbed to tobacco, compared to 7% of women. To read more click here.
Opioid crisis: a laboratory in the dock for the first time
This Tuesday, May 28 begins the trial of the Johnson & Johnson laboratory, accused by the State of Oklahoma of being responsible for the opioid crisis in the United States. More than 70,000 Americans died in 2017 from opioid overdoses, making it one of the main causes of the decrease in life expectancy in recent years. Oklahoma is one of States most affected. “Today, there are more overdoses among patients with chronic pain than among drug users”, alarms in The Parisian Nicolas Authier, President of the French Observatory of Analgesic Medicines. Anyone can sink. “This is not a specific problem for drug users. We are talking here about women (60%) and men aged 40, 50, 60, with no history of drug use. We tell you more about it in our article .
Zolgensma: a $2.1 million treatment soon on the American market
It is to date the most expensive medical treatment ever authorized on the market. Friday, May 24, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light to the pharmaceutical company Novartis for the marketing in the United States of Zolgensma, a revolutionary treatment against spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neuromuscular disease that affects the children under two years old. The price of this drug in a single dose has been set at 2.125 million dollars in the United States, or nearly 1.9 million euros. Its launch on the European and Japanese markets should take place during the course of the year. More information in our article.
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