51 seconds on the Covid vaccine

Demand is up, as more people say they’re comfortable with the vaccine and more people are eligible.

Availability is one big issue, as there just aren’t enough vaccines (in many places). The other is the lack of centralized coordination, with individual states managing the process.

President Biden is invoking the Defense Production Act “to speed up the manufacturing of testing and vaccine supplies and other items needed to fight Covid-19.”

And the new CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, says the agency is on the case.

She’s got help. Amazon, which obviously has a handle on distributing stuff, has written to President Biden saying it’s “prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts.”

The “vast majority” of pharmacists are confident in the vaccine.

Got vaccine billing issues?

If you do, our friends at NCPA have info for you.

NCPA has developed a new tool for pharmacies to report issues they may encounter with either medical benefit or prescription benefit claims. These reports will be monitored and aggregated to identify systematic issues being faced by pharmacies across the country as they serve their patients and communities.

Click here to access the reporting tool.

Better together

Lilly’s bamlanivimab antibody drug didn’t do much to help severely ill Covid-19 patients, but when it was combined with another antibody drug — etesevimab — bam! “There was a significant reduction compared with those who got a placebo.”

Bamlanivimab is currently being used in mild Covid cases, and Lilly is hoping for and emergency use authorization for the combo.

The combination may be an option in the event that coronavirus mutations render bamlanivimab ineffective. […] The drug has been able to halt variants like the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 strain that emerged in the U.K., he said.

Sickle cell cured?

A trial of a CRISPR-based therapy for sickle cell disease seems to show that … well, that it cures the disease by deleting one gene (BCL11A) in stem cells.

A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that, in human trials…

By doing so, stem cells start producing fetal hemoglobin so that patients with congenital hemoglobin defects (beta thalassemia or sickle cell disease) make enough fetal hemoglobin to overcome the effect of the defective hemoglobin that causes their disease.

Monthly HIV treatment

HIV and AIDS are becoming less and less of an issue. The latest: The FDA has approved a monthly injectable HIV treatment that can (and will) compete with daily pills.

Although several medicines exist for treating HIV, ViiV Healthcare is banking on the improved convenience of getting a monthly shot, even if it must be administered by a health care provider.

The golden age for mice

Great news for older mice!

First, USC researchers found that injecting the hormone MOTS-c (which humans express when they work out and literally can “mimic the effects of exercise”) did wonders for the mice, especially the older ones.

[T]reating the oldest mice nearing the end of their lives with MOTS-c resulted in marked physical improvements. This late-life treatment improved grip strength, gait (measured by stride length) and physical performance, which was assessed with a walking test (running was not possible at this age).

Meanwhile, Stanford researchers found a way to repair older immune cells in mice — allowing the cells to “decrease inflammation and restore cognitive function” in mice with Alzheimer’s. They were able to delete the EP2 receptor in mouse macrophages, preventing the cells from altering their metabolism (and triggering inflammation) when exposed to the PGE2 lipid — as you probably guessed.

Don’t take my word for it. Check out the story in the Scientist.

Stretching: the truth

For people with hypertension, it seems that stretching might be better than walking to lower that blood pressure, at least according to Canadian researchers.

“Everyone thinks that stretching is just about stretching your muscles. But when you stretch your muscles, you’re also stretching all the blood vessels that feed into the muscle, including all the arteries.”

You’ll put your eyes out, kids

And the next unexpected ‘epidemic’ arising from Covid-19 is … children getting chemical burns from hand sanitizer.

In 2019, hand sanitizer accounted for just 1.3% of all chemical eye exposure incidents in the pediatric database. By the end of 2020, that number was up to 9.9%.

The Long(ish) Read: Let’s talk kratom

It was popular in Southeast Asia, and now it’s popular here — the kratom plant, whose leaves can be chewed, made into tea, or powered into capsules.

It’s legal in the U.S. (although the DEA calls it a drug of concern). In fact, the DEA was about to effectively make it illegal, but after public outcry decided maybe it should, you know, actually study it first.

While that’s going on, check out what one chemistry professor and pharmacist has to say about his research.