Russia’s Ministry of Health has temporarily approved a generic version of the antiviral favipiravir for use in coronavirus patients, following promising preliminary study results. Read More

Among the many urgent priorities it faces during the pandemic, the FDA is devoting substantial resources to monitoring fraudulent COVID-19 products, issuing two dozen warning letters in May — including, for the first time, one to a company selling a fake vaccine. Read More

Eli Lilly has dosed its first patients in the world’s first trial of an investigational antibody designed to treat COVID-19. Read More

HHS has expanded an existing partnership between its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Emergent BioSolutions, awarding the Maryland company approximately $628 million to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. Read More

A phase 3 trial of Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir has demonstrated positive results in patients with moderate COVID-19 symptoms. Read More

Sixty percent of the public surveyed say they believe a treatment or vaccine for COVID-19 will be developed in just under a year. And once developed, 64 percent said they thought it would be less than a year before the public could begin receiving a COVID-19 treatment or vaccine. Read More

Two watchdog groups are pressing the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to reclassify the “vaccine czar” position President Trump recently filled, making it a government job requiring disclosure of all conflicts of interest instead of a private contractor position not bound by disclosure regulations and criminal ethics laws. Read More

The highly politicized debate over whether hydroxychloroquine is or is not useful to COVID-19 patients appears to be far from over. A coalition of more than 180 doctors and researchers have signed an open letter questioning the findings of a study showing that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have no benefit in treating COVID-19 patients. Read More