Latest U.S. Food and Drug Administration News

The only person in the world with a functioning pig organ is thriving after a record 2 months

Jan. 25, 2025 09:39 AM EST

An Alabama woman passed a major milestone Saturday to become the longest living recipient of a pig organ transplant – healthy and full of energy with her new kidney for 61 days and counting. “I’m superwoman,” Towana Looney told The Associated Press, laughing about outpacing...

Trump administration freezes many health agency reports and online posts

Jan. 22, 2025 15:30 PM EST

The Trump administration has put a freeze on many federal health agency communications with the public through at least the end of the month. In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink told agency...

Keeping blood pressure under control is critical. There's a new option for tough cases

Jan. 18, 2025 09:09 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nothing doctors prescribed controlled Michael Garrity’s dangerously high blood pressure — until they zapped away some nerves on his kidneys. If that sounds weird, well, kidneys help regulate blood pressure in part through signals from certain nerves. The new...

Texas judge says states can revive challenge to abortion pill access nationwide

Jan. 17, 2025 05:50 AM EST

The Texas judge who previously halted approval of the nation’s most common method of abortion ruled Thursday that three states can move ahead with another attempt to roll back federal rules and make it harder for people across the U.S. to access the abortion drug mifepristone. ...

FDA OKs sales of Zyn nicotine pouches, citing health benefits for adult smokers

Jan. 16, 2025 15:08 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials on Thursday backed the public health benefits of nicotine pouches, authorizing Philip Morris International’s Zyn to help adult smokers cut back or quit cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration OK'd 10 Zyn flavors, including coffee,...

FDA bans red dye No. 3 from foods

Jan. 15, 2025 19:06 PM EST

U.S. regulators on Wednesday banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation’s food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk. Food and Drug Administration officials granted a 2022 petition filed by two dozen food safety and health...

What products contain Red 3 dye? Checking ingredient labels is the best way to find out

Jan. 15, 2025 19:06 PM EST

The Food and Drug Administration is ordering food and drug makers to remove a dye called Red 3 from the products U.S. consumers eat and drink. The colorant was banned from cosmetics and non-oral medications decades ago because a study showed it caused cancer when eaten by rats. But...

FDA floats plan to make cigarettes nonaddictive, but its fate rests with Trump

Jan. 15, 2025 16:25 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials on Wednesday released a far-reaching proposal to make cigarettes far less addictive by capping their nicotine content, a goal long sought by antismoking advocates that is unlikely to go into effect anytime soon. The proposed rule from the Food...

Newsom committed California to making its own insulin. It’s at least a year behind his schedule

Jan. 15, 2025 14:34 PM EST

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plan to produce a cheap, generic insulin for the 3.2 million Californians with diabetes is behind the schedule he announced and unlikely to make it to market for several years, industry experts say. Civica, Inc., the nonprofit drug manufacturer...

Elon Musk says a third patient got a Neuralink brain implant. The work is part of a booming field

Jan. 13, 2025 15:12 PM EST

Elon Musk said a third person has received an implant from his brain-computer interface company Neuralink, one of many groups working to connect the nervous system to machines. “We've got ... three humans with Neuralinks and all are working well,” he said during a wide-ranging...