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U.S. officials are preparing to distribute two vaccines next week as Moderna's is expected to get approved for emergency use Friday. We have more on that below. Also, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Operation Warp Speed chief Moncef Slaoui spoke with CNBC's Meg Tirrell in a special edition of Healthy Returns.
Note: The Healthy Returns newsletter is on hiatus for the holidays, returning Jan. 8, 2021.
| | FDA emergency-use approval of Moderna's vaccine is imminent | FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said late Thursday the agency would "rapidly work toward finalization and issuance of an emergency use authorization" for Moderna's Covid vaccine. The authorization is expected as early as today, bolstering the nation's supply of doses. President Donald Trump jumped ahead of the news this morning, saying in a tweet that the vaccine had been "overwhelmingly approved." (It was not.) It's possible Trump was referring to a vote Thursday from the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which voted 20-0 with one member abstaining to endorse the approval of Moderna's vaccine for emergency use.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | Antibody drugs used to treat Trump, Giuliani aren't getting to regular people | And it's not for the reason you think. These drugs, from Regeneron and Eli Lilly, were feared to be in such short supply when they hit the market last month that they'd have to be rationed. But as we learned this week from Operation Warp Speed's Dr Moncef Slaoui, they're actually not getting used. About 65,000 doses get shipped to states each week, and only 5-20% are getting administered, he said. The problem? They're indicated for high-risk patients as soon as they're diagnosed, but many people don't feel sick enough at that point to take a medicine like this. It's an IV infusion – adding another layer of complexity; contagious patients can't just walk into an IV infusion center, so special settings need to be arranged.
-Meg Tirrell | | | | Fauci says U.S. could return to normal by mid-fall if most people are vaccinated | The United States could return to some semblance of normality, like resuming dining inside at restaurants and going to the movies, by mid-fall next year if enough people are vaccinated against Covid-19, White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC's Meg Tirrell during a special edition of "Healthy Returns." To get there, however, Fauci said between 75% and 85% of the population will need to get inoculated against Covid-19. That would create an "umbrella" of immunity to prevent further spread of the virus. "That would be able to protect even the vulnerables who have not been vaccinated, or those in which the vaccine has not been effective," Fauci told Meg.
-Noah Higgins-Dunn | | | | FDA finally authorizes new at-home Covid tests | The FDA this week finally authorized two more at-home Covid tests, one of which is the first Covid test in the U.S. that can be used at home without a prescription. That test comes from Australian diagnostics firm Ellume, with FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn calling their product a "major milestone" in testing for Covid-19. "By authorizing a test for over-the-counter use, the FDA allows it to be sold in places like drug stores, where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes," Hahn said Tuesday in a statement. And on Wednesday, the FDA granted an expanded authorization for Abbott Labs' BinaxNOW test that allows it to be used at home with a prescription.
-Will Feuer | | | | Telehealth providers suffer the Amazon effect | Just months after launching its online pharmacy, Amazon has reportedly set its sights on expanding its role in healthcare for other employers. The company pitched its virtual primary care program, Amazon Care, to online real estate firm Zillow recently. The talks with Zillow did not go anywhere, but the move points to Amazon's ambitions to play a bigger role in health care. The news rocked telehealth providers Teladoc, Amwell and GoodRx. It's early and other retailers like Walmart and CVS Health have found that it takes a while to build out primary care capacity, but telehealth players can't discount the retail giant when it looks to enter a new market.
-Bertha Coombs | |
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