February 11 News: China still mostly closed down as virus deaths pass 1,000, Maryland bans disposable e-cigarettes, Novartis lung cancer drug gets priority US review

Associated Press – China still mostly closed down as virus deaths pass 1,000

China remains mostly closed for business, as the daily death toll from a new virus topped 100 for the first time, pushing the total above 1,000. Despite the official end of the extended Lunar New Year holiday, many remained at home on Tuesday with around 60 million people under virtual quarantine.

Reuters – Novartis lung cancer drug gets priority U.S. review

 Novartis has won fast-track U.S. regulatory review for capmatinib (INC280) in a hard-to-treat form of lung cancer, the Swiss drug maker said on Tuesday. Capmatinib is a MET inhibitor being evaluated as a treatment for first-line and previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic MET exon 14 skipping (METex14) mutated non-small cell lung cancer.

NPR – Will that antidepressant work for you? The answer may lie in your brain waves

A study of more than 300 people with major depression found that brain wave patterns predicted which ones were most likely to respond to the drug sertraline (Zoloft), a team reported Monday. If the approach pans out, it could offer better care for the millions of people in the U.S. with major depression.

Kaiser Health News – When it comes to the new coronavirus, just who is a ‘close contact’?

People who returned from China on or after Feb. 3 have been formally quarantined or asked to stay home. And behind the scenes, local public health officials have launched painstaking efforts to reach “close contacts” of people with confirmed cases of the virus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, asking them to self-quarantine and submit to ongoing monitoring.

The Hill – Maryland will ban disposable e-cigarettes exempt from Trump policy

Maryland will become the first state to ban all flavors of disposable e-cigarettes except for tobacco and menthol, the state’s comptroller announced Monday.

Modern Healthcare – Trump budget punts on healthcare reform, drug pricing policy

President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled his fiscal 2021 budget plan to Congress, which is devoid of details on two of the most prominent healthcare policy issues on the 2020 campaign trail: large-scale healthcare reform and prescription drug pricing.