Laurie McGinley
FDA approves first Alzheimer’s drug in nearly 20 years — but some experts say there’s not enough evidence it actually works
[On June 7, the FDA approved Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab,] the first drug cleared that is designed to alter the course ...
Monoclonal antibodies can keep the COVID infected out of the hospital. Why are hospitals not using them?
Monoclonal antibodies — described as “unbelievable” by President Trump, who received the treatment this fall — are designed for patients newly diagnosed with ...
Moderna tweaking COVID vaccine to target evasive new variants
[A] highly transmissible variant first detected in people who had recently traveled to Brazil was discovered in Minnesota. Moderna, the ...
With concerns rising that Trump was conspiring to end run FDA vaccine standards, White House reverses decision to block release after the agency ignored the president and published them anyway
The White House on [October 6] approved tough new standards for coronavirus vaccines after weeks of delay, but only after the ...
Science checking Trump’s touted convalescent plasma COVID treatment
President Trump announced [August 23] that he had helped break through a regulatory “logjam” to grant emergency authorization of convalescent ...
Trump administration pushing FDA to re-authorize hydroxychloroquine based on recent questionable study
[Trade advisor Peter Navarro is pushing for] a second emergency authorization for the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19, the ...
Can we trust coronavirus antibody tests never reviewed by the FDA?
The Food and Drug Administration, criticized for slowness in authorizing tests to detect coronavirus infections, has taken a strikingly different ...
‘Anecdote and feeling over science and fact’: Exploring President Trump’s embrace of controversial anti-malarial drug
As he stares down a pandemic, economic collapse and a political crisis of his own, President Trump thinks he may ...
Application for pricey gene therapy Zolgensma contained manipulated data, but drug will remain on market, FDA says
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday [August 7] that Novartis submitted manipulated data as part of its application for ...
Cancer patients should get quicker access to unapproved drugs through FDA ‘concierge service’
The Food and Drug Administration plans to provide “concierge service” to doctors seeking access to unapproved drugs for cancer patients ...
A ‘wake-up call for women’: Low-fat diet rich in fruit and vegetables reduces breast cancer risk, study says
Women who followed a lower-fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables and grains had a lower risk of dying of breast ...
Costly CAR T-cell therapy gets boost with Medicare proposal to increase reimbursements
Medicare officials on [April 23] proposed increasing reimbursements for a groundbreaking but costly cancer therapy used for patients whose blood ...
Some mammograms harder to read than others. FDA wants breast density data included in reports
The Food and Drug Administration on [March 27] proposed requiring mammogram providers to tell women with dense breast tissue that ...
Stem cell therapy ‘sold as a miracle cure’ linked to 17 bacterial hospitalizations
Over the past year, at least 17 people have been hospitalized after being injected with products made from umbilical cord ...
Esketamine nasal spray, touted as biggest advance in years for treating depression, gets FDA approval
The Food and Drug Administration approved a novel antidepressant late Tuesday [March 5] for people with depression that does not ...
‘Young blood’ plasma treatments unproven, possibly dangerous, says FDA
Federal health regulators on [February 19] warned consumers against controversial “young blood” treatments — plasma infusions from young donors marketed for conditions ...
Do all breast cancer patients need genetic testing?
The nation’s breast surgeons are advising that all patients diagnosed with breast cancer be offered genetic testing to check for ...
Black-white cancer mortality gap has narrowed significantly, ‘but we still have a long way to go’
Longtime cancer disparities between African Americans and whites — with blacks having a sharply higher mortality rate — have narrowed ...
Immunotherapy could extend survival for patients with aggressive glioblastoma brain cancer
Glioblastoma — the aggressive brain cancer that killed Sen. John McCain, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden ...
Boost for precision medicine? FDA approves drug targeting different cancers with shared mutation
The Food and Drug Administration on [November 26] approved a drug for a wide range of cancers based on a ...
Pioneering cancer immunotherapy researchers awarded Nobel Prize in medicine
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded Monday [Oct. 1, 2018] to cancer researchers James P. Allison and ...
Could genetically modified polio virus treat brain tumors?
A genetically modified polio virus improved the longer-term survival of patients with a lethal type of brain tumor, according to ...
FDA moves against stem cell clinics selling unapproved procedures in Florida, California
The Food and Drug Administration is asking federal courts on opposite sides of the country to permanently stop two stem ...
Treating lung cancer with combination of chemotherapy, immunotherapy
Patients with newly diagnosed advanced lung cancer who received an immunotherapy drug plus standard chemotherapy lived significantly longer than those ...
‘Dangerous precedent’: Former FDA commissioners oppose ‘right to try’ legislation providing access to experimental treatments
Four former commissioners of the Food and Drug Administration are expressing opposition to congressional “right to try” legislation, just as ...
Gene therapy could be ‘ideal cure’ for hemophilia B
[L]ast year, [Jay] Konduros enrolled in a clinical trial, receiving an experimental gene therapy at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [to ...
Cancer patients find hope in immunotherapy drug that exploits genetic glitches
In August 2014, [colon cancer patient Stefanie Joho] stumbled into Johns Hopkins University for her first infusion of the immunotherapy drug ...
Why high-risk breast cancer patients are foregoing genetic testing and counseling
Doctors often fail to recommend genetic testing for breast-cancer patients, even those who are at high risk for mutations linked ...