Researchers are trying to learn more about COVID-19 vaccines from original study participants. The quest is hampered because many people who first received a placebo shot are opting for the vaccine.
Merck, which previously made an Ebola vaccine, had been seen as a serious contender in the worldwide race to come up with an answer to the coronavirus.
The preliminary results showed that hospitalized patients who received remdesivir recovered 31% faster. Dr. Anthony Fauci hailed the findings as "quite good news."
COVID-19 has led to the suspension of many clinical studies of experimental treatments. About a quarter of the stopped trials involved new cancer treatments, an NPR analysis finds.
President Trump continues to promote hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has not been proved to work against coronavirus and COVID-19. He's relying on anecdotes, not science.
The Department of Health and Human Services outlined support for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, as the companies work to develop coronavirus vaccines. Beefing up manufacturing capacity is a priority.
Chloroquine and hydroxycloroquine got the Food and Drug Administration's go-ahead to be put in the nation's strategic storehouses. But the drugs haven't been approved to treat coronavirus patients.
It's too soon to know if the antiviral compound tested in 2014 as a potential Ebola treatment will hobble the coronavirus. Lab tests show promise, but studies in people with COVID-19 have only begun.
Doctors used to worry that antiretroviral drugs were too powerful for HIV-positive newborns. More evidence is emerging that, in fact, early treatment can be safe and effective.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration treats most data it gets on the development of new drugs and medical devices as confidential to companies. Critics say making the data public would help patients.
A study found parachutes were no more effective than backpacks in preventing harm to people jumping from aircraft. The researchers' tongue-in-cheek experiment makes a deeper point about science.
In the U.S., Alzheimer's clinical trials are largely limited to fluent English speakers, which leaves millions of patients without the opportunity to participate and scientists without diverse data.
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen also says the multicenter study of life-threatening sepsis will at best produce confusing results. A Harvard doctor and designer of the research disagrees.
The vast amount of data held in electronic medical records and insurance bills contains bits that could be useful in refining the use of approved for drugs. But how to find it?
Novel migraine therapies could change how physicians treat these debilitating headaches. But they are likely to be expensive and the long-term side effects will not be known for some time.
For more than three decades, pharmaceutical companies have claimed a 50 percent tax credit for the cost of clinical trials of drugs for rare diseases. The credit is now in jeopardy.
A scientist tested his peers' ability to pick which cancer experiments would pan out. They failed more often than not, which doesn't say much for intuition or efficiency in the scientific process.
Fasting every other day is no better for losing weight or keeping it off than restricting calories every day, a study suggests. And it's yet another example of how hard it is to study fasting.
The injectible drug Repatha is spectacularly good at lowering cholesterol. But the first big clinical trial of its ability to prevent heart attack and stroke finds smaller benefits.
Increasingly, advocates for patients are in the room when big medical studies are designed. They demand answers to big questions: "Will the results of this study actually help anybody?"
Low levels of iron in the blood may indicate a serious but treatable medical condition if caught early, but patients in a testosterone trial were not informed, a bioethicist finds.
Several studies out this week show mixed results for testosterone replacement. It appears to protect bone density and strength and prevent anemia, but there is no effect on memory and cognition.
Results from some key cancer studies were different when the experiments were redone in different labs. Scientists don't yet know why but say the answer could have health implications for patients.
Fifty patients with Lou Gehrig's disease have volunteered for a study of a dietary supplement as an experimental treatment. Even a failure could help by eliminating a dead end from consideration.
