U.S. signs $5.9 billion deal with Pfizer for COVID-19 treatment pill
CBSN
The U.S. government will pay drugmaker Pfizer nearly $5.3 billion for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators approve it.
Pfizer asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to authorize the experimental pill, called Paxlovid.
Earlier this month, the company said Paxlovid cut the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infections. The drugmaker studied its pill in people who were unvaccinated and who faced the greatest risk from the virus due to age or health problems, such as obesity.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.