Sydney Lupkin

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of remdesivir for patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Drugmaker Gilead Sciences' lobbying hit a new high in the first quarter.

Experts say it could be dangerous to rely on overseas production of medicine in a crisis, but the U.S. largely does. Rebuilding domestic capacity would take years and substantial investments.

COVID-19 has led to the suspension of many clinical studies of experimental treatments. About a quarter of the stopped trials involved new cancer treatments, an NPR analysis finds.