President Joe Biden on May 12 commemorated the death of 1 million people in the United States from COVID-19, marking what he called “a tragic milestone” and urging Americans to “remain vigilant” amid the ongoing pandemic.
As Paxlovid has become more widely used, some patients have reported that COVID-19 symptoms recurred after completing treatment and experiencing improvement.
ReutersWorldwide demand for Pfizer Inc.’s oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid has been unexpectedly light due to complicated eligibility requirements, reduced testing and potential for drug interactions, a Reuters review of data and interviews with experts found.
An experimental drug being developed by RedHill Biopharma Ltd. that improved outcomes in a randomized trial involving severely ill COVID-19 patients infected with earlier versions of the coronavirus is showing promise against the Omicron variant in test tube experiments, researchers said. Additionally, people living with well-controlled HIV infections are likely to have immune responses to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and from Pfizer/BioNTech similar to those of otherwise healthy individuals, according to new data.
Building on the success of its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, Moderna, Inc. is partnering with the nonprofit scientific research organization IAVI to develop treatments and vaccines against global health threats.
The U.S. health regulator said on March 25 the current authorized dose of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology’s COVID-19 antibody therapy is unlikely to be effective against the Omicron BA.2 variant.
The U.S. government will run out of supplies of COVID-19 treatments known as monoclonal antibodies as soon as late May and will have to scale back plans to get more unless Congress provides more funding, the White House said on March 15.
Pardes Biosciences Inc. said on February 14 the company expects to start a mid-to-late-stage trial of its experimental COVID-19 antiviral pill by mid-2022, following promising data from early human testing.
Merck & Co.’s new antiviral pill – once touted as a potential game changer for treating COVID-19 – is the last choice among four available options for at-risk patients given its relatively low efficacy and potential safety issues, U.S. doctors, healthcare systems and pharmacies told Reuters.
Merck & Co. Inc. and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said on Jan. 28 six lab studies showed their experimental oral COVID-19 drug molnupiravir was active against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
