Page 2 - Veronica Hackethal News Today

email article So far in the pandemic, support for research on drug repurposing -- particularly for inexpensive generics -- has not played a huge role in finding new treatments for COVID-19, but that appears to be changing. Critics charge that drug repurposing is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It does not always work, and can raise false hopes and waste resources. In a March 7 interview with 60 Minutes, for instance, NIH director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, said drug repurposi...

email article Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week. UVA Health Cancels Patient Lawsuits The University of Virginia Health System will cancel a "massive backlog" of court judgments and liens against patients for unpaid bills, according to Kaiser Health News. The lawsuits go back to the 1990s, and tens of thousands of families may benefit. However, most families who have already paid money to U...

email article Following up on previous reviews of the evidence, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), WHO, and Britains Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have issued statements saying that the overall benefits continue to outweigh the risks of very rare blood clots with low platelets reported after the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The WHO now states that a causal relationship is "considered plausible but is not confirmed," while the MHRA has said that the evidence...

email article Since the early days of the pandemic, researchers have been trying to use old drugs for new tricks, raising hopes and spurring controversy. Some of these, like hydroxychloroquine, turned out to be flops, while others are still debated. Recently, another old drug called fluvoxamine has come onto the scene. MedPage Today explores how the old antidepressant has made its way to the COVID spotlight. Fluvoxamine and the COVID Early Treatment Fund Fluvoxamine is the poster child o...