The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reported that a population-based HIV impact assessment shows that the HIV epidemic is coming under control in Lesotho, making it the fifth African country to achieve such progress this year. According to the report, HIV viral load suppression, a key marker of the body successfully controlling the virus, has reached more than 67 percent among all HIV-positive adults ages 15-59 in Lesotho, suggesting that the country is on track to achieve epidemic control by 2020. Over the past nine months, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe have reported similar results, and the HIV epidemic that had been expanding in Uganda has now stabilized. To build on that progress, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released the new PEPFAR Strategy for Accelerating HIV/AIDS Epidemic Control (2017-2020). The strategy reaffirms U.S. commitment to support HIV/AIDS efforts in more than 50 countries and outlines plans to accelerate control measures in 13 high-burden countries that have the potential to achieve epidemic control by 2020.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report stressing the need for development of more antibiotics. The report reveals "a serious lack of new antibiotics under development to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance," WHO said, noting that most of the drugs in the pipeline are only short-term solutions because they are merely modifications of existing classes of antibiotics. Few potential treatment options are in the offing for antibiotic-resistant infections identified by WHO as posing the greatest threat to health, including drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Nearly two dozen patient advocacy groups signed onto a letter urging U.S. House leaders to back away from right-to-try legislation that's under consideration by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Both the House and Senate versions of the Right to Try Act would remove the FDA from the initial approval process for accessing an investigational therapy outside of a clinical trial. "Removing FDA from this process is not likely to facilitate increased access to investigational therapies because FDA currently approves 99.7 percent of all expanded access requests submitted by physicians and companies for patients with immediately life-threatening illnesses who cannot participate in clinical trials," the groups noted in the letter. "When access to a therapy is denied to a patient, it is generally the company that denies the request, and for reasons that appear to be reasonable, such as a determination that the benefits do not outweigh the risks, an unavailability of sufficient product to offer outside of clinical trials, costs, or concerns about adversely affecting clinical trial enrollment." Rather than moving the Right to Try bills to the House floor, the groups ask the committee to consider the reasons patients are unable to obtain experimental therapies by enrolling in clinical trials or through the current expanded access process. They also asked the committee to provide oversight as the FDA implements provisions passed within the past year to improve the expanded access system.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Innovation Center issued an informal request for information as it seeks a new direction. The center is specifically brainstorming on ways to promote patient-centered care and to test market-driven reforms that empower beneficiaries as consumers, provide price transparency, increase choices and competition to drive quality, reduce costs, and improve outcomes.

More than 50 U.S. lawmakers wrote to President Donald Trump to ask him to back his words on the nation's opioid epidemic with action by immediately negotiating a lower price for naloxone, which can be used by first responders to counter opioid overdoses. The letter notes that the price of naloxone, first approved in 1971, has skyrocketed in recent years, forcing responders to ration their supplies.

The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that G. Steven Burrill and Marc Howard Berger have been indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco. Burrill, 73, of San Francisco, is charged with wire fraud, investment-adviser fraud and tax evasion in connection with an alleged scheme to siphon money from an investment fund. Berger, 66, of Walnut Creek, is charged with aiding and assisting in the preparation of tax returns in which Burrill failed to report income he received from the scheme. The 34-count indictment alleges that Burrill, who was the owner and CEO of Burrill & Co. and allegedly managed investments, including Burrill Life Sciences Capital Fund III LP, induced limited partners to contribute capital to that fund with false and misleading letters. The indictment also alleges Burrill caused the fund to transfer millions of dollars in management fees to companies he controlled; the money was in excess of the management fees that were due and allowable under the agreements that governed the fund. Burrill also is alleged to have filed false and fraudulent U.S. individual income tax return forms 1040, which understated his income by excluding money Burrill transferred out of the fund and into accounts he controlled. Berger is alleged to have willfully assisted Burrill in preparing and presenting to the IRS three income tax returns in which Burrill understated his income. Berger was arrested and made an initial appearance in federal court Wednesday morning. He pleaded not guilty and was released on bond. Burrill is scheduled to make his first appearance Oct. 2.