GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer to Create New Company Focused on HIV
GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Pfizer Inc. are joining forces to create a new company dedicated to researching and developing HIV treatments, the Associated Press reports. GlaxoSmithKline already sells several HIV treatments, but they are older drugs, and the company's future pipeline is considered weak. Pfizer, by comparison, has few currently available HIV treatments, but it has some products in development. GlaxoSmithKline, based in London, will have 85 percent equity interest in the new HIV company, while New York-based Pfizer will hold the remainder. Six targeted and innovative medicines will be in the new company's pipeline, according to the AP.
Because many people who acquire HIV don't know they're infected, experts recommend regular HIV testing, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists last year recommended HIV testing for most adult women. African-Americans are heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. And while some recent HIV news has been encouraging, increasingly alarming infection statistics provide cause for concern.
How to Get Affordable Mental-Health Services
Everywhere you look, people are stressed out, anxious, depressed. But at a time when addressing some people's mental-health problems may be even more important than ministering to their physical aches and pains, two thirds of primary-care doctors say they have a tough time getting mental-health services for their patients, Michelle Andrews reports. Doctors in a new Health Affairs study said several factors, from a shortage of professionals in some regions or in some specialties to problems with insurance coverage, make getting mental-health services challenging. "It's a big problem," says Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, who says referrals are toughest in rural areas and the inner city.
Consider these 6 ways to get affordable mental-health services. And learn how to use meditation to help reduce stress and how the new COBRA subsidy may make it easier to hang on to health insurance after a layoff. When it comes to children, find out whether the expanded mental-health coverage for kids provided under the new SCHIP law can help your family.
Teens and Sex Education at the Doctor's Office
It may sound strange to take a 13-year-old to the gynecologist, but many moms are doing so these days, Deborah Kotz reports. Some parents rely on a gynecologist to answer the kinds of questions about sex that their daughters may not feel comfortable asking or that they themselves may not know the answers to. And some bring their daughters in for the Gardasil vaccine against the cervical-cancer-causing human papillomavirus, or HPV. Others figure it's a good transition time from pediatrician to family doctor. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a first visit to the gynecologist for those ages 13 to 15; the group says this visit "may just be a talk between you and your doctor" and won't necessarily involve a pelvic exam.
Sex education for teens can be a complicated and stressful topic for parents. The risks of early sex include emotional harm as well as disease. Read why teens need to hear about oral sex as part of their sex education. And consider these 6 ways to prepare your children for an oversexed world.
—January W. Payne
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