Latest Medication News
Emergency contraception pill could be an alternative to mifepristone for abortions, study suggests
A new study suggests that a pill used for emergency contraception could be repurposed at a higher dose as an abortion drug, providing a possible alternative to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in the most common type of abortion in the United States. Mifepristone has been...
Condemned inmate worried South Carolina needed 2 lethal injections doses at last execution
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's latest execution should be halted so that lawyers for the condemned inmate can get more information about the drug used for lethal injection after the last prisoner put to death needed two massive doses of the sedative 11 minutes apart, the attorneys said in...
Trump administration freezes many health agency reports and online posts
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...
Thomas Tighe reflects on 24 years leading the international health nonprofit Direct Relief
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Just days before ending his 24-year tenure as president and CEO of Direct Relief, Thomas Tighe was still so energized talking about delivering free medications to people who couldn't afford them that he seemed to forget he was standing inside an enormous “cold...
Keeping blood pressure under control is critical. There's a new option for tough cases
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...
US accuses Walgreens of filling millions of illegitimate prescriptions, including for opioids
DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is accusing Walgreens of filling millions of prescriptions in the last decade and more without a legitimate purpose, including for dangerous amounts of opioids, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Filed in the U.S. District...
Ozempic, Wegovy and other drugs are among 15 selected for Medicare's price negotiations
WASHINGTON (AP) — Popular weight loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have been added to Medicare’s list of medications that will be negotiated directly between the government and drug manufacturers, the Biden administration said Friday. The price negotiations for the...
Biden health officials say they built up US pandemic defenses. Trump promises changes
NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday released a “roadmap” for maintaining government defenses against infectious diseases, just as President-elect Donald Trump pledges to dismantle some of them. The 16-page report recaps steps taken in the last four years against...
It's sick season. Here's how to protect yourself from norovirus, COVID-19, flu and RSV
In the winter months, it seems few are safe from some kind of illness — flu, COVID-19, norovirus, colds. While many of the germs that cause this misery can circulate throughout the year, scientists think that the winter surge of flu and cold activity may be because we spend more...
Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner discuss their doping cases ahead of the Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Iga Swiatek, a self-described “control freak,” is taking new precautions — including holding on to extra samples of medicine she takes, in case they need to be tested at some point — after a doping case she described Friday as “probably, like, the worst time...
