Total Recall: Mavidon edition

Mavidon, September 26: “We’re voluntarily recalling our LemonPrep products. They might be contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria.”

Mavidon, December 23: “You know what? Better make that all our products.”

Mavidon is notifying customers, [hospitals,] and clinics to STOP using Lemon Prep, Pedia Prep, Wave Prep, Cardio Prep Single use cups, Collodions, Collodion Remover, Medical Adhesive Remover, Acetone, and all products manufactured by Mavidon IMMEDIATELY due to contamination with Burkholderia cepacia.

Nice job, Wellstar

Wellstar was named one of the top-50 “Best Workplaces for Diversity” by workplace culture tracker Great Place to Work. It’s one of only three Georgia companies to make the list*, and the only one in healthcare. (In fact, it also made the list of Best Workplaces in Health Care & Biopharma.)

* Delta and the Alston & Bird law firm were the others

Supplements can interfere with chemo

Patients on chemo, especially for breast cancer? Tell them to avoid supplements:

Use of dietary supplements that boost levels of antioxidants, iron, vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids appeared to lower the effectiveness of chemotherapy, researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Perhaps now would be a good time to stop this

Because if we don’t, you know everyone will be shocked — shocked! — by how many people are addicted to nicotine in 10 years. “Vaping is taking off among younger children and ‘tweens’.”

Sleep tight

Eisai’s new insomnia drug, Dayvigo, has been approved by the FDA. The approval was briefly delayed while the agency argued over how to pronounce the company’s name.

Conveniently these two stories go together

“80% of parents admit they don’t properly dispose of prescription opioids” (at least among those who were not told how important it is).

However, if you do a bit of education (researchers found) or give special drug-disposal packets* at the same time, you cut the number down a lot.

• No education or packet: 19.2% disposed of leftovers
• Education: 31% disposed of them
• Disposal packet: 33.3% disposed of them
• Both education and packet: 38.5% disposed of them

* Which can be as simple as a Ziploc bag with coffee grounds

Wilfred Brimley was right

Skip the eggs and white bread and go for oatmeal — those shifty Danes have figured out that making that simple swap can lower your risk of stroke.

[T]he researchers calculated that a person who replaced one serving of eggs or white bread with oatmeal would have a 4% lower risk of stroke compared to someone who stayed with eggs or bread for breakfast.

They haven’t figured out why that works yet, but cholesterol might factor in. Of course, there’s always the cause/effect question: ““Perhaps patients who eat oatmeal take better care of themselves in other ways.”

The Long Read: Who’s gonna make new antibiotics? edition

You know all that talk about ‘We have to pay drug makers what they ask for, because that money funds research’? Maybe we should ask that some of that research go into antibiotics.

Big drug companies have stopped researching them because they won’t make enough money, and smaller companies can’t raise the investment to get started for that same reason.

Coming up with new compounds is no easy feat. Only two new classes of antibiotics have been introduced in the last 20 years — most new drugs are variations on existing ones — and the diminishing financial returns have driven most companies from the market. In the 1980s, there were 18 major pharmaceutical companies developing new antibiotics; today there are three.