The director of the FDA's division of antiviral products is urging caution in the use of a new flu drug that just won special permission to fight H1N1.

Gilead Sciences said Tuesday its quarterly profit rose 36 percent on increased sales of its drugs to treat the virus that causes AIDS and royalties on sales of the flu drug Tamiflu.

What follows is a roundup of corporate earnings reports for Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Tamiflu can be given to babies less than six months of age during the current swine flu pandemic, Europe's medicines watchdog said on Friday.

Autopsies on people who have died from the new pandemic H1N1 flu show this virus is different from seasonal influenza, even if it has not yet caused more deaths, experts say.

A new technique has given researchers a "big picture" look at the genome of the AIDS virus, the first time its entire gene map has been decoded.

Teaching new mothers how to breast-feed could save 1.3 million children's lives every year, but many women get no help and give up trying, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Unemployment hit 8.9 percent in April and some predict that number could climb to over 10 percent in 2009 as major companies streamline operations to combat the recession.  But how far can this streamlining really go? For many companies, revenues hinge on worker productivity, and for most operations, per-worker profits and revenues are many multiples of average employee salaries. The measure of revenue per employee also helps shed light on a firm's money-making efficiency and likelihood it will retain jobs. The best companies require  the least number of workers to make the most money.

The new H1N1 influenza virus is now widespread, causing a range of illness, and U.S. health officials said they fear it could mix with drug-resistant versions of seasonal flu.