FDA

Kristi Alcayaga's teenage son, Michael, was able to try a cancer drug called clofarabine that got an accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But the medicine didn't help him.

Health & Safety

Drugmakers are slow to prove medicines that got a fast track to market really work

3:50pm July 22, 2022

by Sydney Lupkin

Stalled confirmatory trials and lax enforcement plague the Food and Drug Administration's accelerated approval pathway for pharmaceuticals that target urgent medical needs.

Queue Listen Now

A lawsuit against Mars, the company that makes Skittles, points to titanium dioxide in the candy. The ingredient is one of thousands of additives allowed in foods under federal regulations.

Science

A Skittles lawsuit raises questions over titanium dioxide — a legal food additive

3:26pm July 22, 2022

by Shauneen Miranda

A suit has been filed against the maker of Skittles over titanium dioxide, a color additive that has been on the market for decades but which has been banned in food by European authorities.

An electronic cigarette from Juul Labs is seen on on Feb. 25, 2020, in Pembroke Pines, Fla.

FDA temporarily suspends order banning Juul cigarettes

1:41pm July 06, 2022

by The Associated Press

The U.S. federal agency said on Twitter that the stay temporarily suspends the marketing denial order while it conducts further review, but does not rescind it.

A nurse fills a syringe with a COVID-19 vaccine in the Staten Island borough of New York on April 8, 2021. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended that COVID booster shots be modified to better match more recent variants of the coronaviru

Health & Safety

FDA says COVID boosters for the fall must target newer omicron types

4:05pm June 30, 2022

by The Associated Press

With immunity waning and the super-contagious omicron family of variants getting better at dodging protection, the Food and Drug Administration decided boosters intended for fall needed an update.

A health worker administers a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic in Chester, Pa., on Dec. 15, 2021.

Health & Safety

FDA advisers recommend updating COVID booster shots for the fall

5:30pm June 28, 2022

by The Associated Press

The Food and Drug Administration will have to decide the exact recipe, but a combination shot is expected that adds protection against a version of the omicron variant to the original vaccine.

Packages of Juul mint-flavored e-cigarettes are displayed at a smoke shop in 2019.

The FDA orders Juul to pull all of its vaping products from the U.S. market

1:21pm June 23, 2022

by Bill Chappell

The company "will finally be held accountable for creating the youth vaping epidemic," the advocacy group Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes told NPR. Juul said it plans to fight the decision.

The FDA hopes that a new limit on nicotine levels in cigarettes will help people stop smoking or avoid the habit altogether.

The FDA knows nicotine is addictive. It wants to regulate it for the first time

6:27pm June 22, 2022

by Bill Chappell

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to set a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and some other tobacco products, looking to make them less addictive and wean smokers off the habit.

A child receives the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Va., in November 2021. A committee of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended Wednesday that the agency expand authorization of C

Health & Safety

Advisers to the FDA back COVID vaccines for the youngest children

4:18pm June 15, 2022

by Scott Hensley

A committee of experts voted unanimously to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration authorize COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for children as young as 6-months-old.

Dr. Stephaun Wallace, who leads the global external relations strategies for the COVID-19 Prevention Network at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, receives his second injection from Dr. Tia Babu during the Novavax vaccine phase 3 clini

Health & Safety

Advisers to the FDA back Novavax COVID vaccine

5:21pm June 07, 2022

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted to recommend that it authorize Novavax's two-dose vaccine against COVID-19.

A sign limiting baby formula purchases is seen on a shelf at a grocery store in Salt Lake City.

The FDA is facing an investigation into its handling of the baby formula shortage

7:17pm June 03, 2022

by Ximena Bustillo

The Department of Health and Human Services wants to know if the FDA followed its rules and procedures in investigating the contamination of baby formula and recalling it.