Pfizer researchers looking for a drug to treat SARS found clues that gave the company a head start in its quest for a pill to treat COVID-19, including the omicron variant.
If the Food and Drug Administration authorizes use of the drug, called molnupiravir, it would be the first oral COVID-19 treatment that could be taken at home.
A plaque-busting Alzheimer's drug called Aduhelm has yet to prove it can preserve memory and thinking. Even so, its approval by the Food and Drug Administration is making some patients opitimistic.
An experimental medicine seems to ease symptoms of Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disabilities and autism.
Drugs that can help keep COVID-19 patients out of the hospital are playing only a small role in Michigan, where the pandemic is accelerating. Logistical challenges are to blame.
Drugs for COVID-19 are sorted into three basic categories: They work, they don't work, or there simply isn't enough information to know. A generic steroid is one medicine that proved helpful.
A newly approved drug can extend the lives of children with progeria, a rare disorder that causes rapid aging. The drug is the result of one family's effort to help a child with the fatal condition.
Amazon launches an online pharmacy, sending shares of CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid tumbling. Amazon has pushed to compete with Walmart and major pharmacy chains that have long offered home delivery.
Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody will be available to people 65 or older or those with underlying health conditions. Supplies will be short, and allocating the medicine will be a challenge.
To boost the supply of Regeneron's antibody therapy for COVID-19, the federal government entered into a $450 million supply contract. Details of the deal show some safeguards are missing.
Experimental medicines have the potential to help people with COVID-19 avoid hospitalization. The scarce supply of the treatments would have to be rationed, if regulators OK their use.
Drugs are being tested that could reduce symptoms and save lives. But, given the way drugs are developed, it's unlikely that any single medicine will be anywhere as potent as a successful vaccine.
Emergency use authorization makes it easier for doctors to use a drug in a manner not specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA granted these drugs this status in March.
Experts say the Communist Party sees more at stake than public health. One of the biggest concerns is the economy. China is also looking to defuse criticism over its early handling of the outbreak.
An uproar followed comments by Sanofi's CEO that if the company develops a vaccine, doses would likely go to Americans first. The board president later insisted, "Any vaccine will be a public good."
Gilead Sciences is donating its initial supply of the experimental treatment for COVID-19. The federal government is deciding where the scarce medicine goes, and there are questions about the choices.
Gilead Sciences has committed to donating the initial supply of the experimental antiviral drug. But executives said the company will need to make expanded production of the treatment sustainable.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of remdesivir for patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Drugmaker Gilead Sciences' lobbying hit a new high in the first quarter.
Experts say it could be dangerous to rely on overseas production of medicine in a crisis, but the U.S. largely does. Rebuilding domestic capacity would take years and substantial investments.
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.
Gilead Science's remdesivir, an antiviral medicine being tested for treatment of COVID-19, would get a seven-year monopoly if approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
A new report finds insurers are becoming more selective about which medications they'll cover. Patients and doctors have to work harder to get treatments approved.
