NOT ENOUGH U.S. COLLEGES ARE NOT TOBACCO AND SMOKE-FREE
New study finds that most U.S. four-year colleges and universities do not have tobacco-free or smoke-free policies on campus.
The study surveyed 605 universities, colleges and community colleges. Researchers found that 229 were tobacco-free, 57 were smoke-free, and 319 were not smoke-free.
Data show that colleges and universities in the western U.S. were less likely to have smoke-free policies, with their coun- terparts in the South and Midwest more likely to have policies in place when it comes to smoking or tobacco use. Also, those colleges and universities offering only associate degrees (versus bachelor’s degrees) were also more likely to have smoke-free or tobacco-free policies for students. Previous studies on this same topic have found that smoke-free policies help student smokers quit smoking and go a long way to prevent new smokers from taking up the habit in postsecondary educational institutions. FREEZE ON DRUG PRICES AFTER TRUMP CALLS OUT INDUSTRY
U.S. President Donald Trump criticized drug makers for failing to help reduce healthcare costs for American and New Jersey-based, Merck &Co is first to answer the call by announcing that it will cut prices on some of its medicines, including a 60 percent reduction on Zepatier which is used in hepatitis C treatment. Merck &Co also announced that it would lower the list price by 10 percent of six other older drugs with minuscule sales. It also said it would not increase the average net price of other medicines in its portfolio of products by more than the inflation rate annually. There has been increasing public and political scrutiny over the high cost of prescription medicines and promises made by President Trump that drug price reductions were coming. Merck & Co became the first major drugmaker to announce voluntary price decreases after calls from the President for lower prices. Under the same pressures from Trump, Pfizer Inc, the Unites States’ largest drugmaker and Swiss drugmaker Novartis followed this week, saying that they would delay increases until the end of the year or until the President’s blueprint for lowering drug costs goes into effect.
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SEPTEMBER 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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