Come out, come out, wherever you are

No more hiding in the back, pharmacists. Rite Aid’s new “RxEvolution” strategy will take pharmacists from the back of the store and put ’em right out front.

The Store of the Future is designed so that pharmacists sit behind the registers, so that they can easily come out to the customers and can bring them over to their consultation area, streamlining the entire experience.

This is clearly great news for pharmacists, who will now be able to “address mind, body and spirit of each of [Rite Aid’s] customers.”

Land of confusion (but getting better)

In the movies, the moment a cure is discovered it’s quick and easy to get it to everyone. Despite the evidence, this isn’t actually a movie, and vaccine distribution is tricky. Chaotic, you might say. In rural areas (and yes, the article specifically mentions Georgia) it’s even trickier.

Storage requirements, federal hiccups, questions of who gets it, weather issues — it all adds up to a bumpy road, but one that’s at least going in the right direction.

“It’s day to day and even then hour by hour or minute by minute — what we know and how we plan for it. We’re building the plane while flying it.”

It may not last

In all the excitement of having one, two, three vaccines that seem to work against Covid-19, there’s one huge question: How long will it last? The answer could very well be “Not as long as we hope.”

Last year had some problems too

From ” Labeling, Packaging, and Nomenclature” to “Order Communication and Documentation” to mixups, bad labels, and more, check out the Pharmacy Practice News list of 2019’s* medication errors.

* The Institute for Safe Medication Practices takes some time to compiles them, obviously.

A diarrhea drug fights cancer…

If you woke up thinking “Degrading the endoplasmic reticulum of cancer cells is one way to fight them!”, German researchers are right there with you. They found that loperamide — yes, the anti-diarrhea drug — seems to cause the cells in glioblastoma brain tumors to self-destruct.

It’s only in the lab at the moment, but they’re optimistic, as only Germans can be.

The loperamide-induced death of glioblastoma cells could help in the development of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of this severe form of cancer.

…and a cancer drug fights diabetes

Let’s say you have diabetic mice. And let’s say you’re treating them with GLP-1 agonists. So far, so good, but get this: Indian researchers found that combining the anti-cancer drug entinostat (aka MS-275) with a GLP-1 agonist like Trulicity, [does an even better job with diabetes and glucose control](

https://elifesciences.org/for-the-press/15fd465f/new-drug-combination-could-improve-glucose-and-weight-control-in-diabetes ).

[M]ice treated with the combination of GLP-1 agonist and MS-275 had a much lower fasting glucose level than control mice that were sustained with repeat dosing. Where a high-fat diet increased fasting blood sugar in the untreated mice, the mice on the combination treatment remained in control.

Biologists at work

University of Bristol researchers are thrilled to announce that, after detailed study of more than 1,400 genes and the use of sophisticated computer algorithms, they have determined where fleas fit on the tree of life.

Harvard biologists have made a detailed genetic and bioinformatic study of the bacteria living in the human mouth and have concluded ‘there are a lot of different kinds.’

The Long Read: Sleeping through Covid

“The Mysterious Link Between COVID-19 and Sleep,” from the Atlantic.

There’s definitely some connection between Covid-19 and sleep, and researchers are working to figure it out. Some data points:

• People taking melatonin “had significantly lower odds of developing COVID-19, much less dying of it,” it was even given to Donald Trump during his treatment.
• After recovering from the virus, many people report neurological symptoms — most commonly insomnia.
• One effect of the virus seems to mimic that of myalgic encephalomyelitis — aka chronic fatigue syndrome.

Roughly three-quarters of people in the United Kingdom have had a change in their sleep during the pandemic, according to the British Sleep Society, and less than half are getting refreshing sleep. “In the summer, we were calling it ‘COVID-somnia’.”