Opioid settlement looms

AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, Johnson & Johnson, and McKesson could be near a settlement in the Big Opioid Case — a $26 billion settlement. It will still need judges’ approval.

Payouts to states and local jurisdictions would take place over 18 years “and diminish if communities do not sign on,” and there’s a separate $2 billion fund for the lawyers to insure that opioid money actually goes to … well, not necessarily the people who were hurt, but to their states and communities.

Oh, and this settlement “does not include pharmacies and some manufacturers, which still face legal challenges.” The show must go on.

The ears have it (wax, that is)

Apparently analyzing someone’s ear wax can tell you how stressed they are. Well… how stressed they were before you started collecting their ear wax, that is.

Researchers at University College London found a non-painful way to collect and measure cortisol levels in ear wax. The benefit: It shows longer-term results that saliva or blood, is cheaper to process than hair (and everyone has ear wax), and doesn’t require a needle.

“[I]f our device holds up to further scrutiny in larger trials, we hope to transform diagnostics and care for millions of people with depression or cortisol-related conditions such as Addison’s disease and Cushing syndrome.”

Alzheimer’s treatment could be approved

FDA reviewers have given the thumbs-up to aducanumab as a treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s. But … there is some controversy about its effectiveness, so more tests might be required before advisory committee recommends the agency approve it.

If approved, aducanumab would be the first new treatment for Alzheimer’s in almost 20 years.

Save the ferrets

If you’re worried about your ferrets getting Covid-19, you may not have to worry much longer. No, no, they’re not being culled by the shifty Danes.

A (small) study by a team from Columbia University and Erasmus medical centers and Cornell University found that the nasal spray they developed “blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has completely protected ferrets it was tested on.”

The spray attacks the virus directly. It contains a lipopeptide, a cholesterol particle linked to a chain of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. This particular lipopeptide exactly matches a stretch of amino acids in the spike protein of the virus, which the pathogen uses to attach to a human airway or lung cell.

More testing, as always, is needed.

Cancer: Don’t wait

New research published in the BMJ finds that “Every month delayed in cancer treatment can raise risk of death by around 10%.”

Canadian and UK researchers found there was a significant impact on a person’s mortality if their treatment was delayed, whether that be surgical, systemic therapy (such as chemotherapy), or radiotherapy for seven types of cancer.

Potential herpes simplex vaccine in the works

The headline says it: Researchers from Nebraska, Northwestern’s, and Tufts universities have developed a genetically edited form of a herpes simplex virus that generates an immune response without sticking around in the nervous system.

When challenged with a virulent strain of herpes simplex virus, the vaccinated animals displayed fewer genital lesions, less viral replication, and less of the viral shedding that most readily spreads infection to others.

Obviously this is a ways away from being a routine human vaccine, but it’s the first potential vaccine against a virus that afflicts half a billion people, not to mention billions of livestock.

The Long Read: A warning for student athletes

“Even if you’re asymptomatic, COVID-19 can harm your heart, study shows — here’s what student athletes need to know,” by West Virginia University Cardiology Professor Abnash Jain.