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Top news of the day from across the health care landscape.
US and European regulators are assessing evidence that GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) HIV drug dolutegravir may be linked to serious birth defects, Reuters reported. The move follows preliminary data from a study in Botswana, which found 4 cases of neural tube defects in babies born to mothers who became pregnant while taking the drug, according to the article. GSK said in a statement that it is notifying doctors of the issue and working with health care authorities to better understand the potential risk.
Young women with gynecological cancer who had access to their parent’s health insurance under an Obamacare provision were diagnosed and treated sooner than those who did not have access, according to Reuters. Due to the law, which allows adult children to stay on their parents’ health insurance policy until age 26, more than 4 in 5 women in this age group are insured, the article reported. According to the study, 3.6% more young women with access to their parents’ health insurance had their cancers diagnosed at an early stage compared with young women and slightly older women who did not have this kind of access.
The Trump administration announced plans on Friday to put new abortion restrictions on federally-funded family planning clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, Kaiser Health News reported. According to the article, the regulations would require facilities receiving federal family planning funds to be physically separate from those that perform abortions, would eliminate the requirement that women with unintended pregnancies be counseled on their reproductive options, and would ban abortion referrals.