An Arm Implant to Block HIV: Brainstorm Health

We write about all kinds of cool (and, more importantly, useful) science here at Brainstorm Health Daily. Perhaps none are quite as cool as technologies that can prevent horrible diseases while maximizing user convenience.

And that’s exactly what Merck, the U.S.-based pharma giant, is setting out to do with its experimental HIV treatment combination that could, the company says, be built into a long-lasting implant inserted into patients’ arms.

MK-8591, Merck says, could prove to be longer lasting than existing drugs on the market (this is, notably, missives from the company during a large health care conference focused on AIDS).

As we’ve recently reported, drug makers have begun to shift their HIV/AIDS treatment efforts to focus on easier delivery and usability. ViiV Healthcare, for instance, is developing a monthly HIV shot.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com

DIGITAL HEALTH

Pinterest wants to help you deal with your stress. Social media is... Stressful. Or at least it can be, according to a slew of studies correlating depression and anxiety with increased social media use. Pinterest, according to MobiHealthNews, wants to do something about that - teaming up with researchers from the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation "to create a new tool aimed at giving users more resources" for answers to questions about stress and serious mental health concerns. (MobiHealthNews)

INDICATIONS

Senate moves forward on drug pricing proposal. A critical U.S. Senate committee has announced a bipartisan proposal aimed at lowering drug prices. In a statement, the two leading Senators on the committee - Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Ron Wyden - said that the "legislation shows that no industry is above accountability." The main mechanism here would be forcing drug manufacturers to pay rebates to the Medicare insurance program if drug prices are raised beyond a certain amount above inflation. (Reuters)