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FDA Approves Generic Version Of Emergency Contraception Pills
FDA on Wednesday approved Watson Pharmaceuticals" generic version of the emergency contraceptive Plan B, the Wall Street Journal reports. The generic drug will be available without a prescription to women ages 18 and older on Aug. 24, when Duramed Pharmaceuticals" market exclusivity for Plan B expires (Kalish, Wall Street Journal, 6/25). The generic version will be available to women ages 17 and younger with a prescription, according to an FDA press release (FDA Web site, 6/24). Watson will market the generic version under the name Next Choice (AP/Washington Post, 6/24).A one-time use pack of the brand-name product, Plan B, currently costs $49.99 through the online retailer DrugStore.com. According to Bloomberg, generic drugs usually cost 30% to 80% less than brand-name versions (Larkin, Bloomberg, 6/24).
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London Health Service Begins Offering Rapid HIV Tests
Barts and the London NHS Trust has become the first National Health Service provider in the United Kingdom to offer rapid, oral HIV tests, BBC News reports. Officials hope that the service will increase the number of people who seek testing because requirements of giving blood and waiting for test results are eliminated with the rapid tests. Barts will offer the rapid, oral tests in non-health care settings such as outreach centers. In addition, sexual health workers hope to be able to offer the test in night clubs in the future. About 200 people in Barts clinics have received rapid tests since March, and officials hope to test 250 people monthly. Merle Symonds, the sexual health adviser at the trust, said the message that HIV is a treatable disease has not "filtered through and stigma does remain around HIV, even if it is waning." Lisa Power of the Terrence Higgins Trust -- an HIV/AIDS organization that also offers rapid, oral tests -- said that a major problem surrounding HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom is that many people are not aware of their status. She added, "Anything we can do to increase the take-up of testing is welcome, and we think what Barts is doing is fantastic."According to BBC News, the United Kingdom has the largest number of people living with HIV in Western Europe, with men who have sex with men accounting for 41% of new cases. BBC News reports that approximately one-third of HIV-positive people in the country are not aware of their status (BBC News, 5/20).
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Health Industry Officials Offer $2 Trillion Savings Plan To The White House
"Health industry officials delivered a plan to the White House Monday documenting how they"ll attempt to save $2 trillion over a decade through measures like reducing hospitalizations and cutting down on paperwork," the Associated Press reports. "Health insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug-makers and others were under pressure to make good on a pledge they made last month to curb their own costs to help President Barack Obama achieve his health care overhaul goals." Their three big areas of savings: $150 billion to $180 billion would come from more efficient use of health care services, $350 billion to $850 billion from better management of chronic diseases, and $500 billion to $700 billion through administrative improvements such as standardizing claim forms (Werner, 6/1).
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WFP Appeals For $23M To Help Women, Children In Yemen

The World Food Programme (WFP) issued an urgent appeal on Tuesday for $23 million in "financial support from international donors for food aid to Yemen specifically targeted at women and children," AFP/Google.com reports. The agency said that the "figure represents 42 percent of the 55 million dollars that it needs for the current year to improve the nutrition of more than 1.6 million vulnerable people in Yemen," the news service writes. Gian Carlo Cirri, WFP Yemen representative, said, "Volatile food and fuel prices combined with conflict and natural disasters over the past years have severely affected the country, leaving more than one in three Yemenis suffering from chronic hunger." According to Cirri, "the current global financial crisis is further compounding the situation" (7/8). The WFP expects that by October, it will not have enough res to continue assisting more than 815,000 of the "most vulnerable people." Abdulkareem Al-Eryani, a former prime minister of Yemen, last month warned that there could be a famine in the country next year, writes the Yemen Times (Al-Hilaly, 7/8). The aid shortages are jeopardizing two programs that "benefit poverty-struck rural families by providing food in exchange for sending their daughters to school and regularly visiting health centres," the National reports (Reinl, 7/7). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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