WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. crime statistics show illegal drugs play a central role in criminal acts, providing new evidence that tackling drugs as a public health issue could offer a powerful tool for lowering national crime rates, officials said on Thursday.

An annual drug monitoring report, released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, also showed a decline in the use of cocaine since 2003, a sign that drug-interdiction efforts and public education campaigns may be curtailing the use of the drug’s powder and crack forms.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts concluded that OraSure Technologies Inc’s over-the-counter, in-home HIV test is reasonably safe and effective for determining whether someone has the AIDS virus.

The 17-member FDA advisory committee voted unanimously that the drug’s ability to prevent new HIV infections and provide HIV-positive people with access to medical care and social services outweighed the risks of false results.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Health regulators said on Monday they could not definitively link Novartis AG’s multiple sclerosis pill Gilenya with the deaths of people who took the drug.

The Food and Drug Administration said the deaths included a patient with extensive brainstem lesions from multiple sclerosis who died of unknown causes within 24 hours of taking the drug. Other deaths were linked to cardiovascular issues.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts on Friday recommended the use of Gilead Sciences Inc’s Quad pill for untreated HIV patients.

The FDA advisory committee voted 13-1 to endorse the four-drugs-in-one treatment, but members said there should be effective monitoring for potential kidney problems among patients and urged further research to determine the drug’s safety profile for women, who have been under-represented in clinical research.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts recommended Gilead Sciences Inc’s Truvada as a treatment for preventing HIV infection among people at risk for contracting AIDS, including homosexual and bisexual men.

In a move that could lead to a new milestone for treatment in the evolution of the worldwide AIDS epidemic, the FDA advisory committee voted 19-3 to endorse the drug’s use for controlling HIV infection among the highest risk group – men who have sex with men.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate panel has launched a probe of possible links between three drugmakers and nonprofit medical groups that advocated for increasing the use of prescription painkillers, now the target of a nationwide law enforcement crackdown.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, and the panel’s leading Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, said the drugmakers and allied groups could be behind dubious marketing practices that have coincided with a huge jump in deadly overdoses from painkillers known as opioids.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences Inc’s Quad pill appears to be effective at controlling HIV infection but could lead to kidney problems, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff report said on Wednesday.

The regulators said the four-drugs-in-one treatment has a generally acceptable safety profile. But they found evidence of disproportionate numbers of adverse renal events among test subjects that may need to be monitored.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences Inc’s Truvada tablets appear safe and effective for reducing the risk of HIV infection, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday. But they recommended a cautious approach for using the drug in efforts to prevent the virus that causes AIDS.

Food and Drug Administration staff said Truvada, which is already being used by patients with the human immunodeficiency virus, is well tolerated overall by uninfected people and may prevent infection in high-risk individuals when used in combination with other strategies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most Americans have seen a decade-long erosion in access to medical services that is likely to continue if President Barack Obama’s healthcare law is struck down by the Supreme Court or repealed in Congress, a study released on Monday shows.

The study, one of a series on the fractured state of the $2.6 trillion U.S. healthcare system published in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs, says access to health care deteriorated for U.S. adults aged 19 to 64 between 2000 and 2010, even among those with private health insurance.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. community health centers that cater to the poor and uninsured saw their patients’ ranks swell by nearly 18 percent from 2008 to 2011 as job loss left more Americans without health insurance, the Obama administration said on Tuesday.

A report released by the White House said 20 million Americans now receive healthcare services through 8,500 community health centers, up from 17 million four years ago.