Leadership advice from a member

A big Buzz shout-out to GPhA member Snehal Doshi, PharmD, vice president of pharmacy services for Marietta-based WellStar Health System, who was interviewed by Becker’s Hospital Review about “what pharmacy leaders need to succeed.” (Bonus: Last year, Becker’s named him one of its “Rising Stars in Healthcare.”)

House begins investigating drug pricing

And so it begins: The House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent letters to 12 pharmaceutical companies asking some probing questions about how they price their drugs, when and why they raise prices, and how much of that money really does go to research.

The best-laid plans (for reducing drug costs)

Speaking of the House, what exactly are the ideas on the table for tackling drug prices? Dylan Scott at Vox has a breakdown of the seven major ideas and their pluses and minuses, from “speedier approval of generics” to “patent-system reform.”

Drug prices are a thorny problem. What we do know for sure is people want something done about drug costs. The current proposals on the table range from the realistic to the purely aspirational.

New legislature, new look at hemp

Georgia’s new and returning legislators are ready to consider changing the state’s hemp laws. One proposal: Now that hemp is legal to grow under federal law, allow it under Georgia law as well. (Georgia is one of only about 10 states that don’t allow hemp to be grown.)

Although it’s somewhat related to marijuana, hemp is an entirely different plant, and it contains little or no of the psychoactive THC. What it does contain is CBD, the PG-13 compound* that could also have medicinal benefits.

More importantly to legislators, though, is that legalized hemp-growing could be good for the state’s struggling farmers. (Hemp can be made into fabrics, paper, plastics, and dozens of other products.)

*Admit it — it’s a pretty good metaphor.

The emerging market for diabetes test strips

For diabetics who can’t afford the test strips they need to keep their blood sugar in line, a strange market has developed: reselling leftover, unused strips at deep discounts. Whether patients simply receive more strips than they use, or if they switch brands of strip-reader, the result is a glut of leftovers.

For a patient testing their blood many times a day, paying for strips out-of-pocket could add up to thousands of dollars a year. Small wonder, then, that a gray market thrives. The middlemen buy extras from people who obtained strips through insurance, at little cost to themselves, and then resell to the less fortunate.

FDA and the shutdown

The FDA will soon have to stop approving new drugs as it runs out of the money it’s received from user fees. Even though those fees come from industry rather than government, the agency isn’t able to accept the payments.

And, while the CDC says the national romaine lettuce crisis is officially over, now some chocolates might be contaminated with hepatitis A. This comes as FDA food inspections are cut back because of the shutdown (although the agency said the inspections have resumed using unpaid workers).

The right gut bacteria means no food allergies

How might you prevent a kid from getting a food allergy? Change his gut bacteria. In fact, researchers found, a single bacterium — Anaerostipes caccae — apparently protects against those food allergies, period.

We found that germ-free mice colonized with bacteria from healthy, but not [cow-milk allergic], infants were protected against anaphylactic responses to a cow’s milk allergen.

ICYMI: Yes, the flu is spreading

At least 7 million cases so far, several deaths, lots of sick folks in Georgia, still time to get your shot, yada yada yada. You know the drill. Just making sure you don’t forget.

Slip out the back, Jack

Reader’s Digest has eight, “One Good Thing” has 17, “Crafts by Amanda” has 20, “DIY & Crafts” has 30, but our prize goes to “GameVortexGeck0” in Instructables who provides a whopping “68 Ways to Reuse Old Prescription Medicine Bottles.”