With friends like these…

Despite being old (almost 100) and easy to make, the price of insulin has been going up. Yet drug makers are earning less and less from it. And — aside from a few corporate programs — patients aren’t paying less.

So where’s all the money going? (Hint: It’s not going to pharmacies.)

USC researchers decided to find out. And what they found will shock you*.

They found that middlemen in the distribution process now take home more than half — about 53% — of the net proceeds from the sale of insulin, up from 30% in 2014. Meanwhile the share going to manufacturers has decreased by a third.

Yep, PBMs — who we thought were saving everyone money** — turn out to be leeching from the system like some sort of slimy, swamp-dwelling invertebrate.

“Although manufacturers have been receiving less, the savings from manufacturers taking less are not flowing to patients. Those savings are being captured by others in the distribution system, and any policy solution has to look at the entire supply chain.”

* That’s sarcasm.
**Still sarcasm.

TechU is THIS SATURDAY!

It’s the biggest gathering of pharmacy technicians in Georgia, and it’s this coming Saturday, November 13, in Savannah. It’s TechU — a one-day CE and social soireé brought to you by GPhA’s Academy of Pharmacy Technicians. It’s developed by GPhA pharmacy techs for pharmacy techs.

We’re talking a day of sociliz— sorry, networking, three hours of CE, and dinner on the campus of South University.

Cost: A mere $39 for GPhA member or $49 for non-members.

Why so inexpensive? Thanks to sponsors Barnes Healthcare, Dogwood Pharmacy, Innovation Compounding, PTCB, Smith Drug, and TrueLearn!

Don’t miss TechU 2021: Click here to get the details and register today!

Autoimmune supplements: play the long game

Taking vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid supplements for the long haul can (a Harvard researcher says) cut your risk of autoimmune diseases by a significant amount. And by “significant” we mean 22% reduction (with vitamin D) and 18% (with omega-3 fatty acids) over five years.

That last part is important.

“People do have to take the supplements a long time to start to see the reduction in risk, especially for vitamin D, but they make biological sense, and autoimmune diseases develop slowly over time, so taking it today isn’t going to reduce risk of developing something tomorrow.”

And this is an actual study of 26,000 people, not a review of other studies. For some reason that feels more … direct.

Oysters vs the common cold

Sometime in the Long Long Ago, someone looked at the inside of an oyster and said, “Hey, Thog! I dare you to eat that!”

Somewhat more recently, researchers at Australia’s Flinders University looked at Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and said, “I wonder if this thing’s hemolymph might have antiviral properties against the HCoV-229E coronavirus*?”

In the latter case, the answer is Yes. The oyster’s hemolymph (what it uses for blood) turns out to kill the virus and even shows “broad-spectrum antiviral activity.”

How does it work? They don’t know. “Further research is required.”

* One of the causes of the common cold

Vaccine alternative (for real)

Don’t want to get a Covid vaccine for some reason, but still want protection from the virus — protection that’s actually been proven to work? You might have another option: A “single” dose of Regeneron’s antiviral cocktail (casirivimab and imdevimab) seems to prevent Covid-19 as well as treat it.

Single is in quotes because it’s actually four separate injections, but the result is (per Regeneron) 81.6% protection from getting the virus, and 100% protection from death, and it lasts at least eight months.

Cancer in a spray can?

The latest consumer products containing the carcinogen benzene — according to the chemical-hunters-cum-pharmacists at Valisure — are … antiperspirant and deodorant sprays. That includes products from Arrid, Axe*, Degree, Dove, Old Space, Right Guard, Suave, Sure, Tag, and more.

It’s filed a petition with the FDA asking the agency to issue a recall and remove the products from the market.

*Overuse of which is already under review in The Hague as a war crime.

Infection favors the old

File this under “Odd Covid findings”: A research team in Montreal found that older people (those over 50) who were infected with Covid-19 produced more antibodies than younger people. And those antibodies lasted at least 16 weeks.

But before you figuring that infection is protection, there are some big caveats.

People who were infected with an earlier strain (e.g., Alpha) had much less protection against later ones (e.g., Delta) — 30 to 50 percent less. So for younger people, that means very little protection from Delta. In fact, earlier infection may not produce antibodies against Delta at all.

(Vaccines, on the other hand, produced antibodies against every current strain, including Delta, for both younger and older.)