What’s driving drug prices?

Drug prices overall keep going up, but one class is driving a lot of the cost: anti-inflammatories. At least, that’s according to Express Scripts.

The pharmacy benefit manager found that medications for inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis drove 43.7% of spending, by far the highest among the different classes.

Down, though, are costs for pain/inflammation drugs and asthma treatments.

Up are specialty drugs. Down are generics. And so on. (Click that link above if you want the details.)

Next big diabetes webinar coming up!

The next session of GPhA’s “Healthy Patients = Healthy Business” diabetes webinars is coming up — these are courses that show you how to grow your practice while you help your patients.

You can attend (from the comfort of your living room) “Optimizing Diabetes Control: A Case Based Approach,” on Tuesday, March 24, from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

This one is all about the team — think workflow, best practices, and billing.

Taught by national diabetes expert and Georgia pharmacy owner Jonathan Marquess, “Healthy Patients = Healthy Business” will give you a deep dive into your role in keeping diabetes in check.

Sign up today!

Psoriasis: Blame the Twinkies

If you feed your mice a Western Diet (i.e., high in sugar and fats), they’re likely to develop inflammatory skin diseases even before they get obese.

In four weeks only, mice on Western diet had significantly increased ear swelling and visible dermatitis compared to mice fed a controlled diet.

But … why? Bile acids, dear readers, bile acids. Mess with lipid absorption and bile acids stop regulating those inflammatory compounds.

Today’s coronavirus tidbits

Infections in children is “remarkably low.”

Most people’s symptoms are mild, according to a huge Chinese study.

Mortality rates are low as well, except for seniors:

• Age 0 – 39: 0.2% mortality
• 40-49: 0.4%
• 50-59: 1.3%
• 60-69: 3.6%
• 70-79: 8.0%
• 80+: 14.8%

Cleaners, autism, and asthma (and folic acid)

Women who are exposed to phthalate while pregnant — a chemical common in household cleaners and some cosmetics — are more likely to have boys that show “autistic traits”.*

But wait! If once the kid is born you think you’re out of the woods … nope. “Exposure to cleaning products in first 3 months of life can increase risk of childhood asthma.”

* Good news: You don’t have to live in a hovel for nine months. Folic acid supplements seem to offset the effects.

Two things to know about antidepressants

They are “notoriously difficult to quit“ per the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

Patients who stop taking their medication often experience Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome (ADS), which includes flulike symptoms, insomnia, nausea, imbalance, sensory disturbances often described as electric shocks or “brain zaps”, and hyperarousal.

They increase the risk of type-2 diabetes, according to a Japanese study of more than 90,000 people. The good news: “Glucose tolerance improved when antidepressants were discontinued or the dose was reduced after diabetes onset.”

Wait a bit

Patients looking to have babies? Those shifty Danes have found that, for some reason, people living in Southern states are more likely to conceive in November — and further, that of all the regions they studied, the South has the biggest difference between seasons.

(And yes, if you’re wondering, the study did take into account sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Really.)

Why do cells age, anyway?

The mitochondria seem to be the culprit, sending signals to the nuclei to trigger cell senescence. And that leads to “formation of pro-inflammatory cytoplastic chromatin.”

Interestingly — if you’re thinking about living forever — HDAC inhibitors seem to interfere with this process.