Morning Briefing

"As Washington prepares for a major international AIDS conference this summer, developments on the drug front are once again elevating the subject of the continuing epidemic in the public eye," CQ HealthBeat reports. The article mentions an FDA panel's recent recommendation for the approval of Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV among healthy people at risk of contracting the virus and a bill (S 1138) introduced last week by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) aimed at reducing the cost of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The bill, which is focused on the cost of ARVs in the U.S., would "create a $3 billion 'prize fund,' through which [pharmaceutical] firms that bring a new HIV or AIDS medicine to market would get awards" in exchange for relinquishing patent rights to the drug, according to CQ (Norman, 5/18).