If costly generics were replaced with cheaper generics that have the same clinical value, total spending could have slimmed by nearly 90 percent, Johns Hopkins researchers found. 

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, flu vaccination rates have slowed — a trend that could be worsened by the nation's pharmacy workforce issue. 

As hospitals tackle an early flu season with viral infections soaring, six drugmakers have reported short supply of oseltamivir, a common flu drug. 

After Pfizer raised its projected COVID-19 vaccine annual revenue to $34 billion, the drugmaker reported positive results for its modified booster and began testing a vaccine candidate intended for COVID-19 and flu. 

Prescriptions for Tamiflu (oseltamivir), a popular influenza antiviral, are higher this year than they have been for the last nine flu seasons, according to GoodRx. 

Drug company GSK stopped its new antibiotic drug study a year early and is preparing to submit for FDA approval after finding it effective in treating urinary tract infections, CNN reported Nov. 3.

Pharmacist-administered COVID-19 vaccines have averted 1 million U.S. deaths and saved $450 billion in healthcare costs, according to estimates published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. 

The European Commission approved Sanofi and AstraZeneca's respiratory syncytial virus preventive drug Nov. 4 while the U.S. faces a surge and a lack of RSV treatments. 

As the U.S. approaches an earlier and more severe season of multiple viruses, here's how eight drugmakers ended their third quarter financially:

After taking an obesity drug each week for more than a year, 73 percent of teenage study participants recorded a weight loss of at least 5 percent. The results were published Nov. 2 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The cost of new cancer drugs taken at home rose more than 25 percent from 2017 to 2021, and the price of all new cancer drugs and infusion treatments jumped 53 percent, according to a Nov. 2 report from California Representative Katie Porter's office. 

CVS Health is "actively exploring strategic alternatives for Omnicare" after recording a pre-tax loss on assets held for sale of $2.5 billion related to the write-down of the long-term care business, according to a Nov. 2 earnings call. 

The following 10 hospitals, health systems and hospital operators have posted job listings seeking pharmacy leaders in the last week.

As children's hospitals grapple with intense capacity issues and an increase in patients with respiratory syncytial virus, treatment options are limited. Multiple RSV vaccine candidates are in the works, but the earliest timeline places the first approval next year. 

In a Nov. 1 earnings call, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said "people wouldn't see the difference" with the tentative commercial price for its COVID-19 vaccine, which hovers between $110 and $130 per dose, because the vaccine-maker plans for no copays. 

As vaccine-makers reroute their COVID-19 therapy and vaccine plans for the future of the pandemic, drugmakers are testing potential avenues with human proteins and intranasal options.

Pharmaceutical companies are working to step into the pneumonia vaccine market, which Pfizer currently dominates and is forecasted to generate $10 billion by 2028, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 31. 

It could be dangerous to offer medication abortion to non-pregnant people and the FDA is concerned, an agency spokesperson told Politico.

Hospitals and labs can use human cells, tissues and cellular or tissue-based products — known as HCT/Ps — in nonclinical scientific and educational settings, according to a FDA guidance published Oct. 31 that supersedes its 2007 policy. 

Pfizer's maternal respiratory syncytial virus vaccine is ready to submit for FDA approval by the end of the year, CNN reported Nov. 1.