IMPORTANT: New immunization document

If you provide immunizations in Georgia, you must provide your
patients with a document from the DPH “on the
importance of having and periodically seeing a primary care physician.” That very document was just updated — get the new version at GPhA.org/immunizationtemplate.

Vaccines from the sky

A consortium including Merck and AT&T is testing the feasibility of using drones to deliver vaccines to remote locations.

The consortium said the project could represent an important step forward in the supply chain for biopharmaceuticals requiring constant storage at cold temperatures to preserve their efficacy.

Actually, it’s not a laughing matter

“Erectile Dysfunction Presents Large Global Health Burden,” reads the headline. It does? Then we read the details. According to a study in the British Journal of Urology, men with ED have an increased risk of all‐cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality, and they are 1.7 times more likely to develop dementia.

Insult to injury?

While Johnson & Johnson fights off lawsuits claiming its baby powder caused cancer, there is also a federal criminal complaint filed, charging company officials with lying about the dangers of the powder.

Finding the right drug may be in the genes

Kroger is partnering with Myriad Genetics to offer genetic tests that will, in theory, help determine which antidepressants are more likely to work for a patient. The test will…

… analyze 12 genes known to affect the clinical performance of 56 common medications used to treat depression. The results of the GeneSight test report can help clinicians understand how a patient’s unique genomic makeup may impact certain psychiatric drugs and make drug treatment choices for that patient.

Newer doesn’t mean better

Germany’s Institute of Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare (essentially the German FDA) looked at all 216 “benefit assessments” it conducted on drugs from 2011 to 2017.

It found “there is no evidence of added benefit for more than half of the drugs,” and “research covering drug approvals since the 1970s suggests only a limited number of new drugs provide real advances over existing drugs.”

Across the 216 assessments, [it] found no added benefit for 115 drugs, considerable added benefit for 55 drugs, minor added benefit for 33 drugs, non-quantifiable benefit for 12 drugs. [It] did not find any of the drugs to have less benefit than the standard of care, but only found a single drug to provide major added benefit.

The scary read: UTIs

Treatment is no longer routine, as more and more strains become resistant to antibiotics.

The drug ampicillin, once a mainstay for treating the infections, has been abandoned as a gold standard because multiple strains of U.T.I.s are resistant to it. Some urinary tract infections now require treatment with heavy-duty intravenous antibiotics.

The long read: Cannabis in Georgia

Atlanta attorney Reggie Snyder looks at “Medical Cannabis in Georgia: Federal Policy Effects on State Industries.” For example:

Depending on how the DEA elects to reclassify cannabis, low-THC oil products manufactured and sold in Georgia could become subject to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) costly, complicated and time-consuming drug approval process.