Will give agency more flexibility: It looks like rescuing the financially struggling Postal Service is going to require thinking outside the mailbox. The post office was more than $2 billion in the red for the first three months of this year and is facing an $8 billion loss for the fiscal year, which could force it to default on some payments to federal accounts. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., says he is introducing a bill to restructure postal finances and ease some of the restrictions that limit its flexibility. “The Postal Service, the Postal Service’s inspector general, the Postal Regulatory Commission and two independent actuaries have all come to the conclusion that the Postal Service has overfunded its obligations to the Civil Service Retirement System by between $50 billion and $75 billion,” Carper says. Carper says he has introduced legislation that would allow the post office to use the overpaid money to make its make advance payments to cover future retiree health benefits—taking upwards of $5 billion off its books each year. In addition, the bill would provide for new postal services such as delivering alcoholic beverages—currently banned in the mail—for more flexibility in closing offices.
Merck, Roche join forces: After a decade as rivals, pharmaceutical giants Merck & Co. and Roche are teaming up to market their hepatitis C medicines just as drugs from a new class are about to transform treatment of the tough-to-cure virus. Merck’s Victrelis, approved last Friday, and Incivek from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, expected to be approved soon, are the first new treatments for hepatitis C in about 20 years. They significantly boost cure rates when used in combination with the current mainstay drugs, which cause flu-like side effects for months and still don’t cure most patients. Merck, looking to maximize the benefit of being first to market, says it has reached a deal under which Roche Holding AG sales representatives will promote Merck’s Victrelis pills as part of a new triple combination therapy, with Roche’s injected hepatitis C drug Pegasys and ribavirin pills.
