Pharmaceutical giants Moderna and Merck announced promising results from a clinical trial testing a combined treatment of an mRNA vaccine and immunotherapy for skin cancer. Melanoma patients who received monthly mRNA vaccines and Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy had lower chances of cancer recurrence and spread, as well as higher survival rates, than those who received Keytruda alone.

Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. sued the federal government Tuesday, seeking an injunction against parts of last year's reconciliation law that allow the Health and Human Services Department to negotiate for lower prices on drugs.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the negotiation program is “extortion” and violates the Fifth Amendment by not paying the company “just compensation” for its products.

Experts warn that despite the first antiviral pills for COVID-19 promising protection for those at risk of severe disease, Pfizer's or Merck's new medications may not be safe for everyone, NBC News reported over the weekend.

One of the two drugs in Pfizer's Paxlovid antiviral cocktail could cause severe or life-threatening interactions with commonly used medications, including statins, blood thinners and some antidepressants, and the FDA does not recommend Paxlovid for those with severe kidney or liver disease.

As the omicron surge pummels a pandemic-weary nation, the first antiviral pills for Covid-19 promise desperately needed protection for people at risk of severe disease. However, many people prescribed Pfizer’s or Merck’s new medications will require careful monitoring by doctors and pharmacists, and the antivirals may not be safe for everyone, experts caution.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently authorized two antiviral pills, one from Pfizer and one from Merck, making them the first at-home treatment for COVID-19 that has been touted as a game changer in the fight against the pandemic.

However, experts told NBC News that the pills will require careful monitoring by doctors and pharmacists. 

The past two months have brought extremely good news in the fight against Covid-19. Two different oral treatments have proved effective at both preventing people newly diagnosed with Covid-19 from entering the hospital and from dying.

“We’re accelerating our path out of this pandemic,” President Biden said after data on the second Covid pill became available. The wide availability of oral drugs could make Covid-19 less lethal, making it less risky for people to return to in-person work and to their normal lives.

The first pill designed to treat symptomatic Covid has been approved by the UK medicines regulator.

The tablet - molnupiravir - will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease.

In clinical trials the pill, originally developed to treat flu, cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the treatment was a "gamechanger" for the most frail and immunosuppressed.

Britain has become the first country to approve an antiviral COVID-19 treatment that can be taken as a pill at home.

The UK national medicines regulator, the MHRA, announced on Nov. 4 that the antiviral Lagevrio (molnupiravir) had been authorised to treat mild to moderate COVID-19—in those with other risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, or those over 60 years old.

Regulators in Britain granted approval to the experimental drug molnupiravir from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck on Thursday, marking the first authorization from a public health body for an oral antiviral treatment for covid-19 in adults.

Experts have said that if widely authorized, the medicine could have huge potential to help fight the coronavirus pandemic: Pills are easier to take, manufacture and store, making them particularly useful in lower- to middle-income countries with weaker infrastructure and limited vaccine supplies.