'Look beyond profit to heal 'lacerated world', pope tells Davos leaders'

 Pope Francis on Wednesday urged political, economic and business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to look beyond profit and try to heal an "increasingly lacerated" world with moral and ethical decisions.

In his message to the world's movers and shakers meeting at the Swiss resort, Francis urged them to tackle the "injustices that are at the root causes of conflict", primarily hunger and the exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of the few.

"Sadly, as we look around, we find an increasingly lacerated world, in which millions of persons – men, women, fathers, mothers, children – whose faces are for the most part unknown to us, continue to suffer, not least from the effects of prolonged conflicts and actual wars," Francis, 87, wrote.

Francis, who has made defence of the poor and immigrants one of the hallmarks of his 11-year-old papacy, said globalization must have a "fundamentally moral dimension" in economic, cultural and political discussions taking place at the WEF.

States and businesses had to join together in promoting "far-sighted and ethically sound" models of globalization that place the common good over the "pursuit of power and individual gain," he said.

"How is it possible that in today's world people are still dying of hunger, being exploited, condemned to illiteracy, lacking basic medical care, and left without shelter?" he asked.

The Argentine-born pope, the first from the Global South, said the world situation required that "businesses themselves be increasingly guided not simply by the pursuit of fair profit, but also by high ethical standards".

The "widespread exploitation" of male, female and child labourers with low wages and no real prospects for personal and professional development must stop, he said.

"It is my hope, then, that the participants in this year’s Forum will be mindful of the moral responsibility that each of us has in the fight against poverty, the attainment of an integral development for all our brothers and sisters, and the quest for a peaceful coexistence among peoples," he said.

https://news.yahoo.com/look-beyond-profit-heal-lacerated-112800922.html

Chicago's NorthShore hospital to pay $55 million in class-action settlement

 NorthShore University HealthSystem in Illinois has agreed to pay $55 million to resolve a consumer class-action lawsuit in U.S. federal court that would mark the end of more than a decade of litigation .over a merger with a rival suburban hospital.

https://today.westlaw.com/Document/Ic9840090b63411eeaa54a0c1b515d738/View/FullText.html

'CDC expands probe into charcuterie meats as salmonella cases rise'

 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against some more brands of charcuterie meat sold by Costco and Sam's Club as the agency expands a probe into a salmonella outbreak that has doubled to 47 cases in two weeks.

The CDC, in an updated post on Thursday, asked people to throw away all packs of Fratelli Beretta brand Antipasto Gran Beretta charcuterie meat sold by Costco, and Busseto brand Charcuterie Sampler sold at Walmart's Sam's Club unit.

The agency's investigators were working to determine if any additional products may be contaminated.

This follows CDC's warning on Jan. 5 that people should not eat one lot of Busseto brand Charcuterie Sampler that was recalled in early January.

The CDC said on Thursday that 23 more cases of salmonella have been reported in an additional eight states in the U.S. since its last warning. The total case count is now 47 from 22 states, with the most number of infections reported in Ohio.

Most people infected with salmonella experience diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. So far, 10 people have been hospitalized due to the multi-state outbreak, according to the CDC.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-cdc-expands-probe-charcuterie-125807896.html

FDA adds 'boxed warning' for Amgen's bone loss drug Prolia

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration added a serious warning on the prescribing information for Amgen's drug Prolia to treat bone loss as it increases the risk of severely low calcium levels in certain patients.

The so-called boxed warning, issued on Friday, comes after the health regulator in 2022 started a review into the risk of very low blood calcium in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease, particularly ones on dialysis, and Prolia.

The FDA reviewed 25 cases between July 2010 through May 2021 during the investigation.

Boxed warnings are the strictest warnings issued by the FDA regarding the potential serious side effect from the use of a drug.

Prolia, approved in 2010 to treat bone loss in postmenopausal women and later approved to treat men and women at high risk of fracture, brought in total third-quarter sales of $986 million.

The drug is set to lose its U.S. patent in February next year.

Several other drugs, which treat bone loss or osteoporosis, including Merck's Fosamax, Amgen's Xgeva and Evenity, already come with safety information that warn against prescribing the drug to patients with kidney disease.

Kidney disease causes low levels of calcium, and the drugs could lead to death or severe injury in those patients.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-us-fda-adds-boxed-153235845.html

FDA finds new manufacturing lapses at Eli Lilly plant

 U.S. inspectors recently uncovered new manufacturing problems at an Eli Lilly plant that has been under scrutiny by federal investigators, according to government records obtained by Reuters.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection in July at Lilly's Branchburg, New Jersey, plant detected eight separate deficiencies. They included problems in tracking manufacturing process and quality controls, as well as lapses in its calibration of equipment and failure to properly maintain facilities and equipment, the inspection report shows.

Lilly said in a statement to Reuters that the inspection followed a company request to the FDA to make a change to its manufacture of migraine treatment Emgality. Lilly did not provide details of the change.

The FDA visit "resulted in some observations that were, in most cases, either addressed during the inspection or already in progress as program improvements," Lilly said. "Importantly, this situation does not affect the quality, safety or supply of any current or planned Lilly products in the marketplace."

The FDA declined to comment. Other drugs produced at the plant include the widely used diabetes medicine Trulicity as well as cancer treatments Erbitux and Cyramza.

Lilly has become the world's most valuable healthcare company by market capitalization. Its shares rose 59% last year on surging demand for Mounjaro, a diabetes drug that is also a powerful obesity treatment.

The drug was approved for weight loss under the brand name Zepbound in the U.S. late last year. Lilly said in a statement that tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound, was not manufactured at the Branchburg plant.

Yet the Indianapolis-based drugmaker has been cited multiple times for manufacturing problems at its U.S. plants over the last few years, Reuters has reported.

The Branchburg facility has been the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice probe following a separate Reuters story in 2021 that detailed allegations of poor manufacturing practices and data falsification.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-us-fda-finds-manufacturing-150333699.html

U.S. wants Japanese shipyards to help keep warships ready to fight in Asia

 The United States and Japan are looking to make a deal for Japanese shipyards to regularly overhaul and maintain U.S. Navy warships so they can stay in Asian waters ready for any potential conflict, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said on Friday.

"China watches what ships are coming in and out. It is not like this is a secret, they know what's happening. So therefore, they take an evaluation of your deterrence," Emanuel told reporters at the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo.

Unchallenged in Asian waters for decades, the U.S. Navy faces a growing Chinese navy being built in shipyards that are outpacing U.S. warship production.

China has more than 370 ships and submarines, up from the 340 ships they had in 2023, according to an annual report released by the Pentagon in October, making it numerically the largest navy in the world.

Using Japanese dry docks would ease pressure on U.S. yards that are wrestling with maintenance backlogs of up to 4,000 days and allow them to focus on shipbuilding that will allow the U.S. to expand its fleet, Emanuel said.

Washington and Tokyo, he added, had established a council to work out a joint plan for the maintenance work.

U.S. ally Japan hosts the biggest overseas concentration of U.S. military power, including the only forward-deployed carrier strike group, which operates from Yokosuka. That group of warships is part of the Seventh Fleet, which commands up to 70 ships and submarines from its headquarters at the Japanese naval base.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which makes warships and submarines for Japan's Self Defense Forces, operates commercial dockyards in nearby Yokohama, which have done some maintenance work on U.S. Navy ships in the past.

https://news.yahoo.com/u-eyeing-japanese-shipyards-warship-054300184.html

'US Launches Disaster Relief Reforms as Climate-Driven Events Rise'

 U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Friday said it was launching the most major reforms to disaster management relief in two decades as climate change-driven extreme weather events, such as floods and fires, increase.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reforms of its federal assistance policies and expanded benefits for disaster survivors aim to cut red tape that victims have said makes it difficult for them to access resources after a disaster.

“We are on the verge of making the most significant update to survivor assistance in the last 20 years to reach more survivors and deliver assistance faster,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell in a statement.

FEMA said the reforms follow feedback from disaster survivors. They are designed to make the agency better able to respond to the threats caused by climate change, which last year caused more "billion-dollar" floods, fires and other disasters than ever before.

In 2023, the U.S. experienced a wildfire on Maui, the nation's deadliest in more than a century, severe floods in California, two tornado outbreaks in central states, a winter storm in the northeast, and Hurricane Idalia.

Among the new measures FEMA announced are a change to its cash relief program that will provide a payment of $750 to households for all disasters for shelter and evacuation to supplement other disaster aid. Previously, the payment was assessed on a disaster-to-disaster basis.

It also created a new "displacement assistance" benefit to give eligible survivors who cannot return to their homes up-front funds to help until they are able to secure housing.

FEMA will also make changes to help survivors who are under-insured by removing a requirement that they apply for a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan before being considered for certain types of financial assistance, and make it easier to access repair loans for homes that were previously ineligible due to pre-existing leaks and damage.

FEMA said the changes will take effect for new disasters declared on, or after March 22, 2024

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-01-19/us-launches-disaster-relief-reforms-as-climate-driven-events-rise