More uninsured kids

For the first time in 10 years, the number of uninsured kids in America rose. In 2017 there were 3.9 million American kids who had no health coverage — that’s about one in 20.

Roughly 276,000 more children were uninsured in 2017 than the year before, bringing the total to more than 3.9 million, according to a report released Thursday by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. Some 5% of those 18 and under had no health insurance, up from 4.7% a year earlier.

“The nation is going backwards on insuring kids and it is likely to get worse,” said Joan Alker, co-author of the study.

MS drug warning

If you have patients with MS taking Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), the FDA “warned that serious cases of stroke and tears in the lining of arteries in the head and neck have occurred.”

NCPA ♥ drug pricing proposal

Our friends at NCPA give a big thumbs-up to the pricing rule CMS is proposing — the one that would revamp the current DIR fee system.

“We wholeheartedly support moving pharmacy price concessions to point-of-sale to benefit patients in the form of lower cost shares,” said [NCPA CEO Doug] Hoey. “Such a move would also eliminate retroactive claw-backs charged by PBMs and allow pharmacies a more accurate accounting of drug costs and reimbursements.

UGA welcomes Duke

Welcome Ken Duke, RPh, as the new interim assistant dean for professional affairs at UGA’s College of Pharmacy’s Savannah Campus. He takes over on December 1. He’s been with the college since 1985; right now he’s an assistant professor in Savannah.

Dementia breakthroughs are happening, but slowly

Headline: “Antibiotic may slow or prevent Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s.”

Reality: Minocycline appears to decrease the build-up of α-synuclein and amyloid-β, two
proteins associated with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. And the exact role those two proteins play isn’t entirely clear.

Related and interesting: MRIs might be able to detect a risk of dementia two and a half years before it begins to manifest. In a study, “MRI brain scans predicted with 89 percent accuracy who would go on to develop dementia within three years.”

Yes, sweat

Lie back and relax why doncha? Turns out that spending more time in a sauna reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The drug-price moratorium is over

Merck raised the U.S. prices of five of its drugs in November — including cancer drug Keytruda — by between 1.5 percent and 6 percent.

Notably, it raised the price of it’s HPV vaccine Gardasil by six percent, after pledging it would keep increases less than the rate of inflation (about 2.2 percent).

“Merck remains committed to responsibly pricing our medicines,” said Merck spokeswoman Pamela Eisele.

Eat your veggies (and drink that OJ)

A study finds that, after 15 years of eating lots of fruits and vegetables, men showed better “late-life subjective cognitive function” — i.e., better memories. Ditto for drinking at least one glass of orange juice. Those who were required to eat Brussel sprouts, however, reported “life really isn’t worth living.”

Squirrel!

Kids born in August (like your humble editor) are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than kids born other months. Not that they’re more likely to have it, but because of the September 1 school cut-off, August kids are usually the youngest in a class.

The finding bolsters concerns that the common neurodevelopmental disorder may be overdiagnosed. “We think … it’s the relative age and the relative immaturity of the August-born children in any given class that increases the likelihood that they’re diagnosed as having ADHD,” says Anupam Jena, a physician and economist at Harvard Medical School.

Elsewhere: Philly considers licensing pharma reps

In Philadelphia — the city that had a jail and courthouse in its football stadium* — officials are considering requiring licenses for pharmaceutical reps to keep them from bribing physicians to write more scripts for their products.

*We kid you not