U.S. health officials are recommending that people 50 and older get a shot against bacteria that can cause pneumonia and other dangerous illnesses.

A Senate committee grilled top executives of three major pharmaceutical companies Thursday, asking why Americans are paying more for prescription drugs than other countries?

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is set to hold a hearing Thursday morning that is titled “Why Does the United States Pay, by Far, the Highest Prices in the World for Prescription Drugs?”

The COVID-19 treatments millions of have taken for free from the federal government will enter the private market next week with a hefty price tag.

Merck is suing the federal government over a plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices, calling the program a sham equivalent to extortion.

COVID-19 patients have two treatment options that can be taken at home.

Pfizer’s new COVID-19 treatment came with a catch when it debuted late last year: It can take months to make the tablets.

Two brand-new COVID-19 pills that were supposed to be an important weapon against the pandemic in the U.S. are in short supply and have played little role in the fight against the omicron wave of infections.

When it comes to treatment of COVID-19, options are limited, and the omicron variant has proved to be an even bigger challenge for providers.

Newly infected COVID-19 patients have two new treatment options that can be taken at home.

There’s now another treatment option for COVID-19.

Tuesday marks a year since the former CEO of UF Health Jacksonville, the late Dr. Leon Haley Jr., rolled up his sleeve and got the first COVID-19 vaccine in the city.

Pfizer says that its experimental COVID-19 pill appears effective against the omicron variant.

The European Medicines Agency has issued emergency use advice for using Merck’s COVID-19 pill, even though the oral medicine has not yet been authorized.

The U.S. government will pay drugmaker Pfizer $5.29 billion for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators authorize it.

Pfizer is seeking U.S. authorization of its experimental COVID-19 treatment pill.

Pfizer says its experimental pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among patients with mild-to-moderate infections.

A new study found a cheap antidepressant reduced the need for hospitalization among high-risk adults with COVID-19.

Drugmaker Merck on Monday requested emergency use authorization for its antiviral pill against COVID-Drugmaker Merck asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its pill for treating COVID-19 in what would add an entirely new and easy-to-use weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic.

Here’s a look at the timeline the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released Friday.

Drugmaker Merck says its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus.

At least 92% of Denver’s municipal employees were vaccinated against COVID-19 Friday, a day after the city’s vaccine mandate took effect in a bid to slow the spread of the virus during the fall and winter, according to a review of city compliance data.

Stocks rebounded on Wall Street Friday but still ended with their worst weekly decline since February.

U.S. regulators have approved a new pneumonia vaccine from Merck, more than a month after OK'ing an improved version of rival Pfizer’s shot.

A new study shows screening and the HPV vaccine have led to drops in cervical cancers over the last two decades in the U.S. But those gains are offset by a rise in other tumors caused by the virus.

White House aides said Biden’s first priority is ensuring that Americans are vaccinated before considering distributing doses elsewhere. AdRussia has sent millions of doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to countries around the world, even as it vaccinates its own population. Israel, which has vaccinated more than half of its population with Pfizer vaccines produced in Europe, has also attempted to use vaccine diplomacy to reward allies. Biden's purchasing strategy has come under criticism from nongovernmental organizations who have encouraged the White House to develop clear plans and thresholds for sharing vaccine with the world. So we’re not going to be ultimately safe until the world is safe,” acknowledged Biden.

The administration is invoking the Defense Production Act, a wartime measure that gives the federal government authority to direct private companies to meet the needs of the national defense, to equip two Merck facilities to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. AdBiden said Johnson & Johnson will operate 24/7 to produce the vaccine. Tom Wolf said Tuesday that teachers will receive doses of the newly approved one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, under a plan his administration will release. AdHe gave few details, but said he and a bipartisan legislative task force agreed that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be set aside for teachers and then other workers considered to be essential, but who are not included in the first vaccination phase. States are receiving 2.8 million doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week.

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)KENILWORTH – Longtime Merck executive Ken Frazier, whose leadership helped bring the drugmaker one of the most lucrative medicines in history and who is one of the few remaining Black CEOs of a major corporation, is retiring. Frazier, Merck’s CEO since early 2011 and an advocate for minority advancement who took on then-President Trump’s tacit support of white supremacists, will retire on June 30. He is one of the few Black CEOs at the head of a Fortune 500 company. At Merck, Frazier clashed with then-President Donald Trump over his refusal to condemn violence by the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Share prices have more than doubled, and revenue has nearly doubled, under Frazier as CEO.

The drugmaker will stop developing two potential COVID-19 vaccines after seeing poor results in early-stage studies. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)Merck is giving up on two potential COVID-19 vaccines following poor results in early-stage studies. The company said its potential vaccines were well tolerated by patients, but they generated an inferior immune system response compared with other vaccines. Merck was developing one of the potential vaccines with France’s Pasteur Institute based on an existing measles vaccine. Five potential vaccines have reached late-stage testing in the United States, the final phase before a drugmaker seeks approval from regulators.

State health officials Monday reported fewer than 13,000 people were being treated for the virus in Texas hospitals, marking the seventh consecutive day of declining patient loads. Some hospitals and clinics have reported having to cancel immunization appointments because they didn’t have enough vaccine doses to distribute. A little more than half of Ochsner employees have yet to get the vaccine, officials said at a news conference Monday. Tessa Walker Linderman, co-lead of Alaska’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, told reporters the state expects to learn soon what its vaccine allocation will be for February. Health officials are also worried about variants that were first reported in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

The strong result was due to sales slightly higher than a year ago, plus restrained spending. The Kenilworth, New Jersey, company on Tuesday said it’s making progress on three efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic: two vaccines and an antiviral drug. Meanwhile, Merck is developing two experimental vaccines that only require one dose, unlike the many two-dose vaccines further along in human testing. Merck reported revenue of $12.55 billion, also easily beating analyst projections for $12.26 billion. Veterinary medicine sales jumped 9%, to $1.22 billion.