The Biden administration recently announced efforts to strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chain, mitigate shortages of essential medicines, and expand domestic manufacturing. The new efforts are part of an overall package of initiatives to boost U.S. supply chains that the White Houe announced on Nov. 27. Securing the country’s supply of medicines and lowering prices have…

President Biden said in his State of the Union address that the U.S. aims to ramp up the use of Pfizer‘s (NYSE:PFE) Plaxovid. The treatment has been in short supply since it won emergency use authorization late last year. Last year, when Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) and Pfizer were close to winning regulatory authorization for…

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…

While the medical product supply chain has always been subject to vulnerabilities, those weaknesses were laid bare early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Drug and medical device supply chains have historically been susceptible to factors such as a lack of supplier redundancy, components, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) or finished product manufacturers. But pandemic-driven sourcing and workplace…

As COVID-19 infections in the U.S. hit new highs, President Joe Biden announced that the country would buy at least 20 million courses of Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) COVID-19 pill Paxlovid.  The government had planned on purchasing half as much of the drug, which won regulatory authorization in late December for certain patients with a high risk of developing…

The Biden administration will not proceed with enforcing its vaccine mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees given a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The administration had planned on putting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in charge of administering the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. While a statement…

The attorneys general in 26 U.S. states are opposing the Biden administration’s plan to force many employers to require their workers to obtain vaccination against COVID-19. While the majority of states were Republican-led, Kansas, Louisiana and Kentucky were three Democratic-leaning states that joined the litigation. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a media briefing…

President Biden first signaled his intent to require many American workers to obtain full vaccination against COVID-19 in September.  Now, a significant number of employers must ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19 by January 4 as the rules become official. The requirements will apply to employers with at least 100…

In a recent press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki touched on the flatlining COVID-19 vaccination rates in the U.S.  Despite a series of vaccine mandates, the daily rate of new COVID-19 vaccinations is the lowest it’s been since mid-January, according to CDC data.  Daily U.S. vaccination rates have dipped below 500,000 doses per…