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A pill meant to prevent HIV infections in high-risk individuals appears to be working, according to two new studies…in…San Francisco…there were no new HIV infections…people who took the daily pill Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir)…in the UK taking Truvada had a lower risk of being diagnosed with HIV…

Ashley Talamo, Publisher: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)

Fourteen years after the 9/11 attacks, a new round of uncertainty looms for people exposed to the million tons of toxic dust that fell on New York when hijacked jets toppled the World Trade Center….Two federal programs that promised billions of dollars in compensation and medical care to sick 9/11 responders and survivors are set to expire next year, five years after they were created by Congress.,, As Friday's anniversary of the terror attacks approached, advocates for responders renewed their push for an extension…Almost 21,600 people received treatment through the World Trade Center Health Program over the past year,… officials haven't been able to say how many patients might lose access to doctors or medication if the program shuts down as planned next September.

Food and Drug Administration is working to develop regulatory systems for diagnostics using next generation sequencing technologies…will cover "analytic performance evaluation standards" and "challenges in clinical validation of NGS tests."...We aim to ensure that these tests provide accurate, reproducible, and meaningful results relevant to a person's medical condition while continuing to foster innovation so that people who have access to the best available results generated by the most cutting-edge medical technologies."

"Jiffy" health care clinics represent one of the fastest-growing sectors of the health care industry, providing quick, convenient, and affordable primary care services without the long waits and higher costs of traditional family practices…In-and-out health clinics exist in states across the country and are often located inside pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, as well as in grocery stores and large retail stores…more than ever, patients are looking for convenient and inexpensive ways to receive care, and the model utilized by in-and-out health facilities offers a seemingly perfect solution.

George Paz’s strategy to rein in drug companies’ price increases is starting to show results. A new analysis shows that attempts by drugmakers to raise prices on their prescription medications are being wiped out in negotiations with managers of drug insurance benefits, led…Express Scripts Holding Co.,.. While list prices for drugs continue to rise rapidly,…U.S. brand-name drug prices rose just 0.7 percent in the second quarter from the previous year…. That’s because companies like Express Scripts and CVS have embarked on strategies to exclude big-selling treatments from lists of covered drugs unless their makers offer better prices...

Actelion Ltd said…it has initiated preliminary discussions with …biotech company ZS Pharma Inc…reported earlier in the day that Actelion had offered to buy ZS Pharma last month in a deal valued at $2.5 billion…both issued statements confirming that the two companies had held preliminary discussions, but did not specifically mention if the talks were related to a buyout…. ZS Pharma's shares had spiked nearly 46 percent…a record high of $84.85…closed up 28.4 percent, valuing the company at $1.9 billion

When the clock ticks in a new month and the entire healthcare industry is thereby mandated to begin using the new ICD-10 code set, there will most likely be glitches here and there…given the limited testing…that has taken place to date, it's impossible to predict with certainty whether those will be small and easily ironed out -- or significant enough to severely disrupt cash flow and launch more downstream problems…some organizations are establishing ICD-10 command centers…a help line to triage savvy billing, IT or coding representatives...

The kerfuffle over Kim Kardashian's drug-promoting Instagram selfie is nothing new: As long as the agency has existed, it's had to figure out how to regulate drug advertisements in new forms of communication technology…The rise of social media has raised a parade of new questions for the agency: How is it supposed to monitor person-to-person pharmaceutical recommendations? Can something be considered an advertisement if it’s only 140 characters long? Who is responsible for the accuracy of tweets about a drug? But this isn’t the first time evolving technology has forced the FDA to rethink its role.

..Department of Health and Human Services is making it easier for patients with shoulder injury related to vaccine administration to be compensated for their pain….In order to capture the broader array of potential injuries,… the Secretary (Sylvia Mathews Burwell) proposes to add SIRVA for all tetanus toxoid-containing vaccines that are administered intramuscularly through percutaneous injection into the upper arm.. more individuals receiving immunizations may be contributing to…rise in patient claims. SIRVA is the first condition compensated by the government that relates to vaccine technique instead of the substance within the vaccine…