The other drug war: More than two dozen of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have agreed to provide funding and other support to assist in Interpol’s battle against counterfeit prescription drugs, the international police agency says. Interpol’s newly created Pharmaceutical Crime Program aims to help health agencies, police and customs bureaus in countries around the globe stem the supply of bogus brand-name and generic medicines, as well as identify and dismantle the organized crime rings distributing them. The full story is here.
What goes in: Diners will have to wait a little longer to find calorie counts on most restaurant chain menus, in supermarkets and on vending machines. Writing a new menu labeling law “has gotten extremely thorny,” says the head of the Food and Drug Administration, as the agency tries to figure out who should be covered by it. While the restaurant industry has signed on to the idea and helped to write the new regulations, supermarkets, convenience stores and other retailers that sell prepared food say they want no part of it. Click here.
A tangled web: China says it is willing to cooperate with the United States in cybersecurity after the latter called on it Monday to take “serious steps” to stop cyberattacks. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying repeated China’s assertion that it is firmly opposed to cyberattacks and is one of the countries that has suffered most from them. She says China cracks down on such hackers in accordance with the law. “Cyberspace needs rules and cooperation, not wars,” she says. “China is willing to have constructive dialogue and cooperation with the global community, including the United States.”
