In brief: Mazda expands air bag recall nationwide
TOKYO – Mazda is expanding its U.S. recall for Takata air bags that may explode to the entire country, following Japanese rival Honda in the decision.
Mazda Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will officially notify the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration soon, but was still compiling details including the vehicle numbers requiring recall.
NHTSA is demanding nationwide air bag recalls. The recalls have concentrated on regions with high humidity, which is suspected as a factor in the explosions.
So far the Mazda recalls for driver side air bags total about 87,000 vehicles. Making the recall nationwide would likely lift that number to 330,000 vehicles.
Mazda is saying it is unclear whether there’s a defect but it will carry out the recall to investigate.
McDonald’s to change menu
NEW YORK – McDonald’s is planning to trim its menu, review its cooking methods and maybe even get rid of some of the ingredients it uses to change perceptions that it serves junk food.
CEO Don Thompson sought to reassure investors Wednesday that such changes will help strengthen the chain’s appeal as it fights to hold onto customers. The discussion in Oak Brook, Illinois, came after the company earlier this week reported yet another monthly decline in U.S. sales. It said the figure fell 4.6 percent at established locations in November.
Thompson has conceded McDonald’s Corp. has failed to keep up with changing tastes. One of the problems is that people are increasingly moving toward foods they feel are fresh or wholesome, and the image of fast-food burgers and fries doesn’t exactly fit that bill.
Breast cancer drug advances
TRENTON, N.J. – Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Wednesday that it will advance a new cancer drug into bigger patient tests, after promising findings in an early study against a very aggressive, common type of breast cancer.
Merck said its Keytruda shrank tumors to some extent in one-third of 27 patients evaluated in a study called KEYNOTE-012. All had what’s called triple-negative breast cancer that had spread outside the breast, and about 85 percent had worsened after multiple rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments – some five or more treatments.
The drug is in a hot new class of medicines, mostly still experimental, called immuno-oncology drugs. They harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer through a mechanism that “uncloaks” a substance called PD-1 on hidden cancer cells so they can be spotted and attacked by key immune cells called T cells.
Merck, based in Kenilworth, New Jersey, said it will start midstage patient tests of Keytruda in the first half of 2015. It’s received accelerated approval for advanced melanoma, but needs further testing for permanent approval.
The company, the world’s fourth-biggest drugmaker by revenue, has now reported positive results in testing of Keytruda in melanoma, triple negative breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma. Altogether, Merck is studying Keytruda against 30 different cancer types.
New HPV vaccine approved
WASHINGTON – Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. has received approval for an updated version of its Gardasil vaccine that protects against an additional five strains of the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s Gardasil 9, which protects against nine strains of the virus called HPV, or human papillomavirus. That’s up from four strains covered by the original Gardasil vaccine approved in 2006.
The FDA said Wednesday the updated Gardasil has the potential to prevent roughly 90 percent of cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers.