| | | | | | Pfizer is starting to put its COVID-19 cash influx to use by spending $11.6 billion to venture deeper into a new treatment area. The New York vaccine and cancer drug maker said Tuesday it will use cash on hand to buy the remaining portion of migraine treatment developer Biohaven Pharmaceutical it does not already own. Pfizer will pay $148.50 in cash for each share of Biohaven, which makes Nurtec ODT for treating and preventing migraines and has a nasal spray under development. Shares of Biohaven had dipped below $100 in recent weeks but soared in trading Tuesday. | | | | | | Testing for COVID-19 has plummeted globally, making it tougher for scientists to track the course of the pandemic and spot worrisome viral mutants as they emerge and spread. Experts say testing has dropped by 70-90% worldwide from the first to the second quarter of this year. Rates are particularly low in low-income countries. That's the opposite of what experts say should be happening with new omicron variants on the rise in places such as the U.S. and South Africa. In the U.S., a shift toward home testing has also obscured efforts to track the virus. | | | | | | Britain's Conservative government has set out its agenda for the next year, with sweeping promises to cut crime, improve health care and revive the U.K.'s pandemic-scarred economy. But there was no new help for millions of Britons struggling to pay their bills as the cost of living soars. The government laid out its plans in the next year in a tradition-steeped ceremony -- but without Queen Elizabeth II, who was absent for the first time in six decades. The 96-year-old monarch pulled out of the Queen's Speech ceremony in Parliament because of what Buckingham Palace calls "episodic mobility issues." Her son and heir, Prince Charles, stood in, reading a short speech Tuesday laying out 38 bills the government plans to pass. | | | | | | | It's pricier now more than ever to have a baby, from diaper costs to child-care challenges. Now, many parents are facing shortages of a critical product: baby formula. | | | | | | The head of the World Health Organization has called on Pfizer to make its COVID-19 treatment more widely available in poorer countries. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news briefing on Tuesday that Pfizer's pill was still too expensiv despite ethe pharmaceutical company allowing generic producers to make the drug. He noted that most countries in Latin America had no access to Pfizer's drug, Paxlovid, which has been shown to cut the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or death by up to 90%. The WHO chief warned that the unequal distribution of COVID-19 drugs could ultimately mirror the grossly disproportionate distribution of coronavirus vaccines. | | | | | | | MADISON, Wis. — National Nurse’s Week is May 6-12, a time to honor and thank the people who keep hospitals running. One person who knows the impact of nurses better than many people is Ross Kopfer. Kopfer and his son were involved in a major crash with a semi-truck in June of 2020. The two had to be pulled from... | | | | | | Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street Tuesday as investors are tempted by lower prices a day after the S&P 500 hit its lowest level in more than a year. The benchmark index rose 1% in the early going, a day after sinking 3.2%. Big technology stocks, which have been swinging sharply both up and down recently, were back in the green. That helped push the Nasdaq composite up 1.62%. Apple and Microsoft each rose. High-end exercise bike maker Peloton dropped 13% after reporting much worse results than analysts were expecting. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.97% | | | | | | A hearing will begin Tuesday in federal court in Cleveland that will result in a judge determining how much CVSHealth, Walgreens Co. and Walmart Corp. should pay two northeast Ohio counties to help them ease the continuing opioid crisis. A jury in November concluded that the three pharmacy chains were responsible for damage wrought by the opioid epidemic in Lake and Trumbull counties. Plaintiff attorneys before trial said the cost to abate the crisis is around $1 billion for each county. Attorneys for the pharmacy chains in court filings said the amount is far lower and damage caused by others should be excluded from any amounts ordered by Polster. | | | | | | |
