Medicine

The Associated Press reports: Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can donate blood in the U.S. without abstaining from sex, under a federal policy finalized Thursday by health regulators. The Food and Drug Administration guidelines ease decades-old restrictions designed to protect the blood supply from HIV. The agency announced plans for the change in January and said this week …

The New York Times reports: A panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday that the benefits of making a birth control pill available without a prescription outweigh the risks, a significant step in the decades-long push to make oral contraception obtainable over the counter in the United States. If the F.D.A. approves nonprescription sales …

Politico reports: Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who guided President Joe Biden’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic from his first day in office, is leaving her post, the White House announced Friday. Her announcement comes days before the Biden administration plans to end the public health emergency in place since early 2020, and …

Fierce Biotech reports: An HIV drug from GSK or ones like it could have new therapeutic potential against neurodegenerative disease, findings in mice suggest. In a report published April 26 in Neuron, scientists from the University of Cambridge described how they established a link between microglia and autophagy in the etiology of dementia and Huntington’s disease. They also showed that …

Huddle reports: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma last December, had good news during a talk with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “The doctors tell me that the chemotherapy has extinguished the cancer cells, at least as far as they can tell,” he said. “I’m hanging in there and I’m going to make it …

Axios reports: New doctors applying to medical residency programs were likelier to avoid practicing in states with the most stringent abortion restrictions, an analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges found. The drop in applications, particularly for OB-GYN residencies, could exacerbate the lack of maternal health care in those states, which already have the highest maternal mortality rates in …

Reuters reports: Over 300 biotech and pharmaceutical industry executives, including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, signed an open letter on Monday seeking the reversal of a federal judge’s decision to suspend sales of the abortion pill mifepristone. A U.S. judge on Friday suspended the FDA’s two-decade-old approval of the drug. Last week’s ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk undermines the FDA’s authority, …

NBC News reports: Democratic lawmakers are mobilizing in the wake of the decision in Texas that threw access to the so-called abortion pill into flux Friday, introducing legislation Monday to protect access to the most widely used form of abortion in the U.S. Reps. Pat Ryan of New York and Lizzie Fletcher of Texas will introduce the Protecting Reproductive Freedom …

The New York Times reports: Narcan, a prescription nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, can now be sold over the counter, the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday, authorizing a move long-sought by public health officials and treatment experts, who hope wider availability of the medicine will reduce the nation’s alarmingly high drug fatality rates. By late summer, over-the-counter …

The New York Post reports: Viagra could soon be getting some very stiff competition. Researchers in Australia claim to have developed a nasal spray to combat erectile dysfunction — and it could be rolled out to American consumers within two years. The spray-to-play product reportedly works in as little as five minutes, meaning it could be a bedroom game changer …

The Associated Press reports: Abortion-rights supporters filed an amended lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block Wyoming’s new abortion pill ban from taking effect. A group hoping to open what would be the state’s second clinic offering abortions filed the amended lawsuit days after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed what is the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills. Absent court intervention, …

NPR reports: The fungus Candida auris is becoming a more dangerous public health care threat, as the number of drug-resistant cases jumped in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. The national public health agency is calling C. auris an urgent threat because of its resistance to medications. It can cause serious illness and death in people …

Reuters reports: Some of the world’s leading makers of flu vaccines say they could make hundreds of millions of bird flu shots for humans within months if a new strain of avian influenza ever jumps across the species divide. One current outbreak of avian flu known as H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has killed record numbers of birds and infected mammals. Human …

CBS News reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday that the state has launched a 10-year partnership with a drug maker to produce insulin for its residents at a significantly lower cost. The state plans to sell insulin at a cost of $30 for a 10-milliliter vial, Newsom said in a press conference Saturday near Los Angeles. The insulin will …

The Hill reports: Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) on Monday called on the State Department to issue a travel advisory warning Americans about the dangers of buying pharmaceuticals from some Mexican pharmacies. “We write to urge the State Department, which plays a critical role in ensuring the safety of Americans traveling abroad, to immediately issue a …

The New York Times reports: The drug maker Eli Lilly and Company said on Wednesday that it would significantly reduce the prices of several of its lifesaving insulin products that are used by diabetes patients and whose prices Lilly has repeatedly increased in the past. Lilly also said it would cap at $35 a month what patients pay out of …

Via press release from the FDA: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first over-the-counter (OTC) at-home diagnostic test that can differentiate and detect influenza A and B, commonly known as the flu, and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Home Test is a single-use at-home test …

Stanford Medicine’s Scope Blog reports: According to trends in male reproductive health data, sperm quality and testosterone levels have declined over the last few decades, sounding alarm bells for Michael Eisenberg, MD, a professor of urology at Stanford Medicine. It’s made him wonder: Should we be concerned about other differences in men’s reproductive health? In a study published Feb. 14 …

Via press release from Business Wire: Amazon today announced RxPass, a new Prime membership benefit from Amazon Pharmacy that offers patients affordable access to commonly prescribed generic medications that treat more than 80 common health conditions. With RxPass, Prime members can receive all of their eligible medications for one flat, low monthly fee of $5, and have them delivered free …

NPR reports: The Food and Drug Administration is considering a major shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy. The goal is to simplify vaccination against COVID and perhaps adopt an approach similar to what is used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating. Currently, people who want to be fully vaccinated …