The CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices on Oct. 21 voted unanimously to recommend booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccines for millions of Americans, The New York Times reported.

Six deals and acquisitions completed by drugmakers since the end of July, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review:

Johnson & Johnson is receiving criticism from lawmakers and consumer advocates over a recent move that transfers all of its baby powder-related legislation to a new company it formed called LTL, NPR reported Oct. 21. 

The U.S. has donated and delivered 200 million COVID-19 vaccines to more than 100 countries as of Oct. 21, according to the United States Agency for International Development. 

Merck said Oct. 19 that it is recalling about 22,000 vials of its Cubicin antibiotic after receiving a customer complaint of glass in a vial. 

Pfizer said Oct. 21 people who received a 30 microgram booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine saw higher immunity levels than those who did not receive a booster.

The number of prescriptions for ivermectin in the U.S. is now 24 times as high as it was before the pandemic, according to a report published Oct. 20 in The New England Journal of Medicine. 

Walgreens is expanding mental health first aid training to 27,000 of its pharmacists, the company said Oct. 21.

The District Court of Central California on Oct. 20 awarded $27.5 million to Afrouz Nikmanesh, PharmD, after she filed a class-action lawsuit against Walmart, her former employer.

The FDA on Oct. 20 amended the emergency use authorizations for the COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, allowing for the administration of an additional dose.

Lupin Pharmaceuticals is recalling several batches of hypertension pills after an analysis found that some batches contained levels of a possible carcinogen higher than the FDA's acceptable limits. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said Oct. 20 it will commit up to $120 million to boost access for lower income countries to Merck's COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir once it is approved. 

Biogen reported $300,000 in Aduhelm sales in its third-quarter financial report released Oct. 20. 

An average of 837,500 COVID-19 vaccine doses per day were administered in the past week, a 3 percent increase from the week before, according to The Washington Post. 

The White House on Oct. 20 detailed its plan for vaccinating children ages 5-11 against COVID-19, so that the vaccines can be quickly distributed and made equitably available upon FDA authorization and a CDC recommendation.

The FDA is planning to allow Americans to receive a COVID-19 booster made by a different drugmaker than the one that made the vaccine with which they were initially inoculated, despite little peer-reviewed efficacy data on the practice.

Atea Pharmaceuticals said Oct. 19 that the COVID-19 antiviral drug it is developing with Roche failed to benefit nonhospitalized patients in a midstage trial. 

Mark Twain once said, “the report of my death was an exaggeration.” And throughout history, that statement was misquoted many times by those wanting to embellish a misjudged outcome.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was 93 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations from the virus in children ages 12 to 18 in a real-world study conducted by the CDC, the agency said Oct. 19. 

Between 2017 and 2019, Medicare spent more than $220 million on cancer drugs that later proved to be ineffective, Endpoints News reported Oct. 19.