The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced two major initiatives to shed light on long COVID, a condition affecting millions. First, the agency plans to establish the Office of Long COVID Research and Practice. HHS is also set to launch new long COVID-19 clinical trials through its RECOVER initiative. Jointly, the…
HHS to offer Tamiflu doses from national stockpile
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced that it would provide the prescription flu treatment Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) to jurisdictions with an elevated demand for the antiviral during the flu season. The move would make millions of treatment courses available. Roche is the developer of Tamiflu. Several generics are also available…
U.S. government earmarks $1.6 billion to battle opioid crisis and overdose epidemic
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded more than $1.6 billion as a part of an initiative to battle the drug overdose epidemic. SAMHSA’s State Opioid Response (SOR), Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) grant programs and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)’s rural communities opioid response programs will lead the new initiative.…
HHS and DOD order 3 million doses of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine
Novavax (Nasdaq:NVAX) announced that its protein-based NVX-CoV2373 COVID-19 vaccine could be the first of its type to be available in the U.S., assuming it wins backing from the FDA and CDC. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have secured 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine.…
HHS makes 144,000 more doses of Jynneos monkeypox vaccine available
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has said it would make available an additional 144,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine doses available to states and jurisdictions. Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX:BAVA) is the manufacturer of the vaccine. Jynneos won FDA approval for both smallpox and monkeypox in 2019. There have been approximately 700…
HHS to support more manufacturing of APIs, other healthcare products
HHS will fully establish a program to provide loans, grants and other types of funding to expand the U.S. health resources industrial base, the White House announced today. The news was part of a package of actions the Biden administration is taking to support American manufacturing and boost supply chains. The White House briefing statement…
Feds order 200M more vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna
U.S. government agencies announced that they purchased a total of 200 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA). The orders of 100 million doses from each of the only two FDA-authorized vaccines in the U.S. were made by the U.S. Health & Human Services Dept. (HHS) and the Defense Dept. (DoD). The U.S. has…
U.S. government stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines already drained
Last week, President-elect Joe Biden vowed to release COVID-19 vaccine doses from a government stockpile. On Jan. 13, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) echoed that sentiment, stating it would “no longer stockpile millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses held to ensure Americans receive their second shot,” according to a brief notice. But federal…
Trump’s ‘most-favored nation’ drug-pricing plan hits a snag
A federal judge in Maryland has temporarily blocked a Trump executive order that tied Medicare reimbursement for several drugs to lower rates in other countries. The executive order was facing a flurry of lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sided with the plaintiffs’ argument that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not…
Biden to bolster COVID-19 vaccine production with Defense Production Act
Joe Biden is reportedly planning on invoking the Defense Production Act to shore up the production of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. While FDA has authorized the distribution of vaccines from Moderna Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and its partner BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), distribution has been patchy thus far. The news came from Dr. Celine Gounder, a Biden…