The Council for Responsible Nutrition and the Natural Products Association announced they have met with the entire freshman class of the 113th Congress, including 83 offices in the House of Representatives and 14 offices in the Senate, as part of their educational efforts to ensure that newly elected members of Congress have accurate information about dietary supplements and their role in good health.

More than 300 independent community pharmacists from across the country met in Washington, D.C., at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill Wednesday for the 2013 National Community Pharmacists Association Conference on Legislation and Government Affairs.

The U.S. Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would enable states to collect sales tax on online transactions, to widespread applause from big-box retail.

The retail industry added nearly 30,000 jobs last month amid a general uptick in hiring that brought unemployment down to 7.5%, according to the Department of Labor.

The National Alliance for Hispanic Health on Thursday announced a partnership with the Acetaminophen Awareness Coalition to increase awareness among Spanish-speaking consumers for the importance of safe use of medicines that contain acetaminophen.

A recently released reported that analyzed and measured the level of metals in 32 lip products does not provide any “new meaningful information” and the traces of metals found were not “unexpected given their natural presence in air, soil and water,” according to a statement issued Thursday by the Personal Care Products Council.

Walgreens on Wednesday will celebrate the official opening of its latest flagship store, located at School and Washington streets in Boston, the company announced.

More than 1.3 million emergency room visits in 2010 were related to abuse of prescription drugs, and the problem has become widespread enough that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies it as an epidemic. In response, curbing abuse of prescription drugs has become a cornerstone of the Obama administration's drug policy.

The Marketplace Fairness Act is one step closer to passing. The Senate voted 63-30 to end debate on the bill, which would compel online retailers to collect state taxes, and will make a final decision on the bill on May 6.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health heard testimony on Thursday morning from representatives of the Food and Drug Administration and several industry trade groups following the introduction of draft legislation that sponsors said would strengthen the country's pharmaceutical supply chain.

Hundreds of community pharmacy executives, pharmacy students and other pharmacy advocates representing 41,000 chain pharmacies took to Capitol Hill from March 13 to 14 for the 5th Annual NACDS RxImpact Day and conducted more than 400 meetings with U.S. senators and representatives.