Mercer welcomes new student pharmacists

Congrats and welcome to Mercer University’s incoming class of student pharmacists! The college held its white coat ceremony on Friday (August 16), when 124 student were “coated”. The class of 2023 is 69% female and 30% male*, with 111 students from the U.S. (including 81 Georgians), and 13 from other countries.

* 1% “did not report”

Out and About: Greg Reybold at PUTT

Our resident legal ninja, Greg Reybold, spoke at the Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency’s (PUTT — truthrx.org) 2nd Annual Political Summit this past weekend, offering a case study of Georgia’s new patient anti-steering law.

Here he is answering the question, “What are the chances the PBMs will start doing good for pharmacists?”

Uninsured numbers increase for the first time

The U.S. is back above the 10% mark for people without health insurance, hitting 10.1% — the first increase since the Affordable Care Act took effect. That means about 700,000 more Americans do not have coverage.

There’s a big split between states that expanded Medicaid and those (like Georgia) that didn’t. Non-expansion states had an average uninsured rate of 14.3% (up from 13.7%), while expansion states have held steady at 7.6%.

Another interesting note: “Non-Medicaid expansion states lost marketplace coverage at twice the rate of expansion states.”

PCOM teachers of the year

The PCOM Georgia School of Pharmacy chose its two teachers of the year: Xinyu (Eric) Wang was selected as Teacher of the Year for the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Mandy Reece was selected for the Pharmacy Department of Pharmacy Practice. Congrats to both!

Novartis’s ills continue

Now it comes out that a company exec sold his Novartis shares soon after the company notified the FDA that it had manipulated some of its data, but before the FDA made that information public.

A new organ

Yep, Swedish researchers have identified a new organ in the skin, “comprised of glia cells with multiple long protrusions and which collectively go to make up a mesh-like organ within the skin.” It’s sensitive to mechanical damage such as pricks and pressure.

Remember to hydrate!

If you thought July was hot, you were right — it was the hottest month ever recorded*, in fact. (July is the hottest month of the year, so ‘hottest July’ = ‘hottest month’, period.) The CDC has recommendations for dealing with the heat.

* Since 1880, when records started being kept; July is the hottest month of the year

A mascot that’s not popular

Mr. Mucus, Reckitt Benckiser’s Mucinex spokes…thing, bottomed the list of product characters in every ranking of positive emotions.

Mr. Mucus ranked as the most annoying, most creepy, least likable, least personable and least trustworthy.

Elsewhere: Brexit reality check

Despite what HM Government has been saying, the UK really is facing drug shortages in the wake of a no-deal Brexit. We know this thanks to the leak of the official document (“Operation Yellowhammer“) that contradicts what Downing Street has been saying publicly.

“With significant disruption lasting up to six months across the Channel,
this will have an impact on the supply of medicines and medical supplies unless there is mitigation via other sources.”

The long read: No one can say they didn’t warn us

“A Nun, a Doctor and a Lawyer — and Deep Regret Over the Nation’s Handling of Opioids”

They saw addicts, overdoses, and robberies, and they knew the opioid crisis was coming … in the late ’90s.

The three also believe that the Justice Department could have changed the behavior of other opioid makers if it had charged executives of Purdue Pharma in 2007 with felonies, as federal prosecutors had recommended, in connection with OxyContin’s illegal marketing.

Instead, department officials negotiated a deal under which the executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges that did not include jail time.