Axios

Roughly 1.8 million people received a COVID-19 vaccine during the week ending Sept. 22, Reuters reports.

Why it matters: The stat, per data from the analytics firm IQVIA, suggests that early glitches with the rollout of an updated vaccine last month haven't greatly affected demand for the shot.

Two scientists on Monday were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research that laid the foundation for the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Why it matters: The prize recognized Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, whose research on mRNA vaccines was originally overlooked by the scientific and medical communities.

Medicare Advantage insurer SCAN is getting ahead of the program's planned drug price negotiations by offering seniors free or $11 monthly co-pays for 13 name-brand drugs, the carrier told Axios first.

Why it matters: The nonprofit will make the changes for the 2024 plan year — two years before the first negotiated prices are supposed to take effect.

Tests for COVID-19, blood lead levels, breast cancer genes and other conditions could soon be held to higher accuracy standards under a much-anticipated plan from federal regulators.

The big picture: The Food and Drug Administration on Friday rolled out a plan to regulate lab-developed tests that have long escaped close agency scrutiny as Congress drags its feet on the issue. But the renewed effort to regulate so-called LDTs could face strong industry opposition.

In refusing to freeze Medicare drug price negotiations, a federal judge in Ohio on Friday appeared to throw cold water on one of the pharmaceutical industry's main arguments against the Inflation Reduction Act.

Driving the news: U.S. District Court Judge Michael Newman, a Trump appointee, turned away the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's request for the negotiations to be paused while legal challenges to the IRA play out, writing that "participation in Medicare, no matter how vital it may be to a business model, is a completely voluntary choice."