At this point you shouldn’t have this stuff on your shelves

Ranitidine, aka Zantac, that is. Perrigo is now recalling its generic version, joining the ranks of … well, a long list of countries (but not the U.S.), manufacturers, and retailers that have pulled brand-name and generic ranitidine from the shelves because it might be contaminated with a carcinogen.

A lot of drugs affect the gut biome

We know the gut microbiome is pretty darned important, and that it has widespread effects we’re still uncovering. So a finding that half of common drugs affects your gut bacteria … well, that’s something to be concerned about.

And they do: Proton pump inhibitors, metformin, antibiotics, and laxatives all seem to have a significant effect, according to a pretty big new study presented at the United European Gastroenterology conference.

Shout out to InpharmD

Congrats to the folks at InpharmD — including GPhA board member Ashish Advani — who just had a paper published in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy, “Development of a Drug Information Service Collaborative in Academia.” (high five)

Could widespread gene repair be around the corner?

CRISPR has a lot of promise, but it’s far, far from perfect. It can seek and cut out specific genes and replace them with others, but there’s no guarantee that the new genes will be incorporated properly.

Now a new technique called “prime editing” might change that, and at the same time open the possibility of being able to cure any genetic disease.

[P]rime editing could, according to [co-developer David] Liu’s calculations, correct around 89 percent of the mutations that cause heritable human diseases. Working in human cell cultures, his lab has already used prime editors to fix the genetic glitches that cause sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and Tay-Sachs disease.

Cheer for UGA at NCPA!

If you’re going to the NCPA convention in San Diego this weekend, be sure to cheer on the UGA team at the business-plan competition! They’re up against teams from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Austin.

It’s Saturday, October 26, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Come and see first-hand the excitement around the live presentations of the Annual Business Plan Competition. This top spot earns them a chance to win cash for their school and a complimentary trip to the NCPA Multiple Locations Conference in Florida, at the end of February and beginning of March 2020.

Sadly, NCPA doesn’t have info online about this year’s competition, but click here for some general info on the event.

“You must score this high to be able to speak with a pharmacist”

Did you know you can offer cognitive testing for your patients? Yeah, us either — but apparently you can. So says Cognivue, maker of the “world’s first Food and Drug Administration-cleared computerized test for assessing cognitive function.”

(Warning: The “article” doesn’t give a lot of info, but we liked the idea of brain tests for patients enough to share it anyway.)

The Long Read: Polio, 2019

“In the last decade, a dangerous new front has opened in the war on polio.”

In countries where vaccination rates are low, the weakened viruses in the oral vaccine can circulate in wastewater and mutate into what are effectively evil twins of themselves.