US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer said it would sell its patented drugs at cost to 45 low-income countries.

After graduating from Columbia University with a chemical engineering degree, my grandfather went on to work for Pfizer for almost two decades, culminating his career as the company’s Global Director of New Products. I was rather proud of this fact growing up — it felt as if this father figure, who raised me for several years during my childhood, had somehow played a role in saving lives.

US drug company Pfizer has penned a deal to allow its experimental Covid-19 treatment pill to be made and sold in 95 developing nations. The deal with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool not-for-profit could make the treatment available to 53% of the world's population. But it excludes several countries that have had large Covid-19 outbreaks, including Brazil.

Among their top-selling drugs, 76% of Pfizer's and 89% of J&J's were developed by other companies and account for nearly 90% of revenues.

A new cancer treatment can wipe out tumours in terminally ill head and neck cancer patients, scientists have discovered. In a landmark trial, a cocktail of immunotherapy medications harnessed patients’ immune systems to kill their own cancer cells and prompted “a positive trend in survival”, according to researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, and the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust.

Common medications can accumulate in gut bacteria, a new study has found, altering bacterial function and potentially reducing the effectiveness of the drug.

The Spanish firm Grifols helped set off a kerfuffle last year when it, along with other firms, offered nearly double the going price for blood donations for a COVID-19 treatment trial. Brigham Young University in Idaho had to threaten some enterprising students with suspension to keep them from intentionally trying to contract COVID-19. The trial failed, however, and now the Barcelona-based firm is hoping to extract something far more valuable from the plasma of young volunteers: a set of microscopic molecules that could reverse the process of aging itself.

If you are like the majority of Australians, you are overpaying for health care. Healthcare bills can be costly even with medical insurance. The sum of cash you pay on...

Psychedelic drugs creating hopes for breakthroughs in depression, anxiety, pain and addiction are being tested at UAB. The university is one of a handful in the nation conducting trials with psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The largest U.S. database for detecting events that might be vaccine side effects is being used by activists to spread disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. Known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, the database includes hundreds of thousands of reports of health events that occurred minutes, hours or days after vaccination. Many of the reported events are coincidental — things that happen by chance, not caused by the shot. But when millions of people are vaccinated within a short period, the total number of these reported events can look big.

The tech giant may be opening its own pharmacies, and Google wants to mine patient data. The goal is not to fix a broken system but to exploit it. A few years ago, attending a tech conference that catered to an industry-friendly audience, I listened as a venture capitalist praised the upcoming possibilities for growth in the U.S. health care market.

Big pharma maintains drugs prices are massive because of the cost of drug R&D.

A review of paracetamol for 44 common pain conditions found no strong evidence to support its use in many instances. Paracetamol is also known as acetaminophen, Panadol, Tylenol.

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? Michael Shermer, a famous skeptic, was forced to admit that one of the reasons is that some of them are true. In his research he found that the fact that some conspiracy theories are real feeds people’s suspicion and makes them susceptible to the belief in others that are far less credible.

An Amazon Prime membership already gets you deals on retail goods, snappy deliveries and access to video-streaming content. Now, the e-commerce behemoth says it will also get you free two-day deliveries at the newly-announced Amazon Pharmacy, as well as savings on generic and brand-name medication.

Amazon is making its biggest push into the healthcare industry yet with the launch today of Amazon Pharmacy: a new service offering home delivery for prescription medication.

United States President Donald Trump announced on Sunday he has signed an executive order to reduce drug prices in the US. "My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries. The days of global freeriding at America’s expense are over and prices are coming down FAST! Also just ended all rebates to middlemen, further reducing prices," the president tweeted.

Hypertension affects one in four adults and is usually treated with medication, even though lifestyle changes can reduce blood pressure. Here's what you need to know

There’s plenty of hype around AI and we will see some disappointments. But in the case of drug discovery, this technology has already had a significant effect.