FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's health minister says he expects to begin rolling out parts of a catastrophic drug program as early as this fall. Hugh Flemming said Tuesday a complete prescription and catastrophic drug program will be in place before the next election in September 2014. "I'll set my career on it," Flemming told the legislature. "We're going to have a prescription drug plan so that every New Brunswicker will have prescription drug coverage. The expensive drugs will be covered."

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not committed to a run for president in 2016 but on Tuesday she picked up an endorsement from Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, who announced she is supporting a group encouraging Clinton to run for the White House again. McCaskill, who in 2008 backed Barack Obama over Clinton in the Democratic primaries, became the first member of Congress to announce her support for Clinton.

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies need to boost the benefits of drug research by working with regulators and healthcare providers to overhaul the way medicines are approved and paid for, a thinktank backed by investors says. After years of disappointing research and development (R&D) productivity, a new report backed by leading institutional investors sees "early indications of a recovery", with U.S. approvals of new drugs last year the highest since 1996.

It's not bubbly-cute any more, but Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew's new official signature, to go on all new US banknotes, should meet boss President Barack Obama's admonition not to debase the currency. Revealed by the Treasury Tuesday, Lew's signature for the greenback still had some of the characteristic swirls that drew howls when he was first nominated in January. But -- thankfully to many -- it was a far cry from the eight-loops-and-a-tail that he scribed on White House memos in his previous job as Obama's chief of staff.