Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

Yes, the Trump administration pushed for the use of unproven drugs to treat Covid, and was mocked for it. But here’s the new twist:

You know the Merck antiviral everyone is so excited about? The one that cuts severe disease by 50 percent? The Emory professor who developed it pitched it to the feds back in 2019 (for several viruses) and again in 2020 (for Covid-19). But he didn’t have much data, and no clinical trials. So the feds turned him down for funding, of course.

But now that the trials show it does work, the Monday morning quarterbacks come out:

The Trump administration’s decision almost certainly delayed the development of the drug. Having an effective antiviral pill during the Delta wave could have substantially reduced its death toll.

Wait, what? Yes, that article is implying the Trump administration should have approved a drug … without evidence. Perhaps by using the White House’s secret crystal balls.

Job opening: AIP vice president

The Academy of Independent Pharmacy of the Georgia Pharmacy Association seeks a dynamic leader for the position of vice president of the academy. The position is located in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

The vice president’s position is responsible for growing the AIP membership through continually increasing the academy’s value proposition. The position supervises up to five people, so prior supervisory experience is required. For further information about the position, please click here to review the job description.

If interested, please send your résumé or CV to asullivan@gpha.org, along with your salary history no later than October 29, 2021. References will be required if your résumé is selected for follow up.

Questions about the position may be sent to bcoleman@gpha.org.

Send back in that Tinactin

Bayer is voluntarily recalling unexpired Lotrimin AF and Tinactin spray products over the potential for benzene contamination.

“The affected products shipped between September 2018 and September 2021” and you can find a list of lot numbers on the press release page.

Covid updates

The bad news: Georgia ranks #6 for Covid hospitalizations and #6 for death rate over the last week. At least 100 people are dying every day. The state is averaging more than 3,400 new daily reported cases (and who knows how many unreported).

Now the good: Cases are down by 24% in the last week. So are hospital admissions (-27%) and ICU admissions (-27%). Deaths are declining, too (-16%) and should go down even more over the next two weeks.

Of note:

12-17 year olds [have] been a low to middle of the pack age group for the summer 2020 and the winter 2020-2021 surge. But they have dominated during the summer 2021 (delta) surge. Children aged 5-10 year olds are the second biggest contributor to disease.

The big question: Is this finally the beginning of the end of the pandemic, or is this just a lull in the virus’s still-unexplained two-month cycle?

“Barring something unexpected,” said former FDA commish Scott Gottlieb, “I’m of the opinion that this is the last major wave of infection.” Here’s hoping.

NCPA objects to wedding

UnitedHealth (insurer and PBM) wants to merge with Change Healthcare (healthcare data processor and technology). But NCPA says that’s a bad idea, and it wants the Justice Department to block the merger.

“This deal would give UHG a trove of intelligence on its smaller competitors, including thousands of independent pharmacies and their patients. We believe it would use that intelligence to steer patients away from local pharmacies and send them to their own mail-order business.”

No! Force patients to use its own pharmacies? That would never happen!

Opening the (neural) pathways

A proof-of-concept study published in Nature Translational Psychiatry found that the constipation med prucalopride (and other 5HT4 agonists) might prevent cognitive decline in patients with mental illness.

The researchers found that, compared with those taking the placebo, the volunteers taking prucalopride were both significantly better at the memory test after the scan, and also had fMRI scans indicating enhanced activity in brain areas related to cognition.

How? They think it’s because the drug targets the 5-HT4 serotonin receptor. But they’re not sure. Good news: Because prucalopride has minimal side effects, the team is comfortable doing more human tests.

Short-term protection

Covid immunity after being infected only seems to last a few months — not indefinitely, and not nearly as long as immunity from vaccines. So found Yale and UNC researchers.

“Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less. Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infection alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections.”

The good news: Other studies have shown that infection + vaccination gives excellent protection.

Drug … or pharaoh?

It’s time again to play everyone’s favorite pharmaceutical game: Recently Approved Medication or Ancient Egyptian King?

Six Seven of these are novel drugs approved by the FDA in 2021. Six Five are names of Egyptian pharaohs from 1805BCE to 445BCE. Do you know which is which?

  1. Amenmesse
  2. Atogepant
  3. Invega Hafyera
  4. Jakafi
  5. Kamose
  6. Korsuva
  7. Mavyret
  8. Namlot
  9. Nefrusobek
  10. Pausiris
  11. Saphnelo
  12. Sogroya

Answers here.

Previous games

The Long Read: Biosimilar Frustrations edition

Biosimilar drugs are supposed to be interchangeable with the original brand-name version. But the naming conventions mean it’s not that simple for prescribers.

[T]he patent on Neulasta expired in October 2015, and there are now several FDA-approved biosimilars on the market: Fulphila (pegfilgrastim-jmdb), Nyvepria (pegfilgrastim-apgf), Udenyca (pegfilgrastim-cbqv) and Ziextenzo (pegfilgrastim-bmez). […] [H]ealth care providers are now required to order a specific version, including the suffix. Further complicating the process, prescribers have no idea which version will be covered by a patient’s insurer.