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Merck CEO Kenneth C. Frazier discusses the high cost of pharmaceuticals in the U.S. and challenges posted by President Obama’s health-care reform legislation with WSJ’s Alan Murray.

Continued here:  Merck Bracing for Health-Care Reform Challenges/a>

Managing HIV: New CDC research shows that the majority of patients with HIV in the U.S. aren’t receiving medications and care necessary to control the virus enough to prevent them from passing it to others or impacting their own health, partly because some don’t know they’re infected, the WSJ reports. Only about 28% of the 1.2 million infected people in the U.S. are estimated to get regular care and have their infections under control, the report says.

Trial Disappointment: A trial conducted in Africa of a microbicide gel containing the anti-HIV drug tenofovir has ended because the gel didn’t protect women from contracting the virus, the New York Times reports. Part of the study — which also looked at whether two different pills protected against the virus — is continuing and data have not yet been released, making it difficult to figure out why, exactly, the gel didn’t appear to work, the paper says.

Figuring Out a Cleanup: Efforts in Japan to figure out how to properly and quickly clean up the radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident have been hampered by a lack of leadership and diluted accountability, the WSJ reports. Making efforts even more difficult is uncertainty about the levels of contamination that pose a health hazard, the paper says.

Mood Lift?: A study shows that for women, drinking two to three cups of coffee per day is associated with a 15% lower risk of developing depression during a ten-year period, the WSJ reports. Other forms of caffeine were also tied to a lower risk of depression. However, this type of study can’t prove that caffeine prevents the condition.

President Obama asked the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw a proposed rule for ozone air-quality standards, citing the nation’s wobbly economy. WSJ’s Deborah Solomon has details on today’s News Hub.

Read more from the original source:  Obama to EPA: Withdraw Air-Quality Rule/a>

The News Hub covers President Obama elevating rhetoric toward GOP candidates on his Midwest bus tour. Also, Texas governor Rick Perry hopes to charm potential voters with his tax-cutting resume. Plus Chinese construction companies digging into U.S. turf.

More here:  AM Report: Obama Tearing into GOP/a>

Family members of military service personnel who take their own lives while deployed will get condolence letters from the president, according to a statement from President Obama, reversing a longstanding but unwritten White House policy.

Many health professionals have long called for a change to the White House’s stance on condolence letters, which they believe will help reduce the stigma associated with suicide and give social support to families.

Former Massachusetts governor and potential GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney defended the state’s health care plan he instituted. He also sought to distance himself from President Obama’s health care plan.

View post: News Hub: Romney Defends Massacusetts Health Plan/a>

Potential GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney defended the health care plan he instituted in Massachusetts and distanced himself from Barack Obama’s health care plan. Simon Constable anchors News Hub coverage. (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images)

Go here to read the rest: PM Report:Romney Steps Back from Obama Health Plan/a>