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Summary List PlacementGood news about coronavirus vaccines keeps rolling in. On Friday, Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine became the first candidate to receive emergency authorization in the US. The day before, an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration recommended the shot for widespread use in peoples ages 16 and older. Moderna's shot could be next: The company applied for an emergency use authorization (EUA)...

Summary List PlacementEvan Fein can't know for sure, but he is pretty certain he got Pfizer's experimental coronavirus vaccine about five months ago.  "I think I got a real vaccine, and not a placebo," Fein said, during a public comment period the Food and Drug Administration held on Thursday afternoon. The comment period was part of an advisory committee hearing, where top disease experts...

Summary List Placement Hello, Today's a big day in the race for an effective and safe coronavirus vaccine. A group of experts is meeting in a conversation that could have big implications for what it'll take for a vaccine to get cleared by the FDA.  Also in healthcare news: 11 charts that break down how the US compares to other countries in responding to...

Summary List Placement The US clinical trial of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine will be suspended for the next several days as the US Food and Drug Administration investigates a potential side effect, according to Reuters. Sources told the news agency on Monday that enrollment in the trial was not being reopened "until at least midweek," pending the investigation. The FDA did not immediately respond to...

President Donald Trump is prepared to deliver news of a "major therapeutic breakthrough" for the novel coronavirus on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a tweet late Saturday. The president yesterday took aim at the Food and Drug Administration, claiming that the agency was part of a conspiracy to slow down vaccine trials until after the November election. McEnany said FDA...

Peter Marks, the director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said he would resign if the agency pushed out an unproven coronavirus vaccine. The FDA is under immense pressure to release a vaccine, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise, and as President Donald Trump urges health officials to act speedily.  "You have to decide...

The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to a saliva-based coronavirus test funded by the NBA and NBPA to be made available for public use, the agency announced Saturday. Unlike most other coronavirus tests, which involve nasal swabs, the new SalivaDirect test simply processes saliva samples. The new test could cost as little as $4 dollars per sample and provide results...

The head of the Food and Drug Administration on Sunday dodged questions on President Donald Trump's baseless claim that 99% of COVID-19 cases are "totally harmless." "I'm not going to get into who's right and who is wrong," Dr. Stephen Hahn said during a CNN interview.  Coronavirus cases are surging in the US, which has the highest number of confirmed cases and reported fatalities...

The US now has 66 million excess anti-malaria pills after the FDA U-turned on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. The FDA said the drugs were likely ineffective in treating COVID-19, and could be dangerous. It previously allowed the drugs to be used in hospitalized coronavirus patients. The government has sent out 31 million hydroxychloroquine tablets to state agencies, The New York Times reported, and now has...

The US Food and Drug Administration has ordered a Bill Gates-backed coronavirus testing program in Seattle to discontinue indefinitely, The New York Times first reported. SCAN, or the Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network, was testing 300 people a day before it was ordered by the FDA to stop testing, and applications were to be made public soon. A partnership between five local medical organizations and...

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tested fewer than 6,000 potential coronavirus cases so far. The figure came from FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Saturday, who last week promised there would be 1 million test kits available by the end of the week.  The US was unable to meet that goal, though Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday the nation will...