Food and Drug Administration

Now, both the Pfizer and the Moderna booster shots can be given five months after the second dose of vaccine — down from six months.

The Food and Drug Administration greenlights the biotech firm's vaccine for emergency use in the U.S. The move bolsters a vast inoculation effort that's already underway.

"Given the public health emergency, FDA is advising that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable (the sixth, or possibly even a seventh) from each vial," the FDA said Wednesday.

Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine is the first to receive an emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Officials say it may be ready for widespread inoculations within days.

The Food and Drug Administration's authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine could come in a day or two, a member of an FDA expert panel says. But he says it may be late 2021 before normalcy returns.

The pharmaceutical giant and partner BioNTech announced Friday that they are submitting a formal request to the Food and Drug Administration, just days after the vaccine was shown to be 95% effective.

The Federal Trade Commission issued warning letters to several companies that marketed an unproven drug to treat COVID-19. Sales of the nonapproved drug, thymosin alpha-1, were first reported by NPR.

The Food and Drug Administration's chief said Sunday the therapy reduces deaths among COVID-19 patients by 35%. On Monday he apologized, acknowledging that statistic greatly exaggerates any benefit.

Three members of the White House coronavirus task force — FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, CDC Director Robert Redfield and Director Anthony Fauci — are isolating themselves for two weeks.

The agency said Friday that using hydroxychloroquine and a related compound, chloroquine, for COVID-19 may cause life-threatening side effects. That warning contradicts the president's own enthusiasm.

Major pharmacies had already pulled the popular heartburn drug and its generic equivalents due to a contaminant. Now the Food and Drug Administration says definitively they should not be sold or used.