More than 30,000 medication errors were reported last year leading to 21 patient deaths and serious harm of 27 others, new research reveals. In total 5,500 patients were in some way damaged by mistakes in the prescription process, such as being given the wrong drug, the wrong dosage, or not being supplied with medicine when … Read more
The World Health Organization has approved a version of a widely used cholera vaccine that could help address a surge in cases that has depleted the global vaccine stockpile and left poorer countries scrambling to contain epidemics. WHO authorized the vaccine, made by EuBiologics, which also makes the formulation now used, last week. The new … Read more
The first drug shown to slow Alzheimer’s disease hit the U.S. market over a year ago, but sales have lagged, major hospital systems have taken months to start using it and some insurers have rejected coverage. Doctors also expect some patients will hesitate to take Leqembi due to its limited impact and potential side effects. … Read more
PARIS — France’s government presented a bill Wednesday to allow adults with terminal cancer or other incurable illness to take lethal medication, as public demands grow for legal options for aid in dying. Many French people have traveled to neighboring countries where medically assisted suicide or euthanasia are legal. French President Emmanuel Macron has long … Read more
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval program is meant to give patients early access to promising drugs. But how often do these drugs actually improve or extend patients’ lives? In a new study, researchers found that most cancer drugs granted accelerated approval do not demonstrate such benefits within five years. “Five years after … Read more
WASHINGTON — The maker of a drug for Lou Gehrig’s disease that recently failed in a large study said Thursday it will pull the medicine from the market, acknowledging it didn’t help patients with the deadly neurological condition. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals announced it will voluntarily halt sales and marketing of the drug in the U.S. and … Read more
NEW YORK — Wandering the former site of New York’s famed CBGB nightclub, pointing to familiar names on band posters spread amid carefully preserved graffiti, is like being transported to a life that CNN’s Alisyn Camerota has long since left behind. The high-end apparel store there now has kept some of those artifacts to appeal … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican Gov. Jim Justice on Wednesday broke with West Virginia’s GOP-majority Legislature to veto a bill that would have loosened one of the country’s strictest school vaccination policies. West Virginia is only one of a handful of states in the U.S. that offers only medical exemptions to vaccine requirements. The bill would … Read more
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will again wade into the fractious issue of abortion this week when it hears arguments over a medication used in the most common way to end a pregnancy, a case with profound implications for millions of women no matter where they live in America and, perhaps, for the race for … Read more
The U.S. Supreme Court will take up a case Tuesday that could impact how women get access to mifepristone, one of the two pills used in the most common type of abortion in the nation. The central dispute in the case is whether the Food and Drug Administration overlooked serious safety problems when it made … Read more
