Feds shipping the one antibody that still works

We told you last week that the omicron variant of Covid-19 is resistant to two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments used for treatment.

In short:

• Bamlanivimab and etesevimab (administered together) do not work against Omicron
• REGEN-COV does not work against Omicron
• Sotrovimab does appear to work against Omicron

Now the feds (FDA and HHS) released a statement saying that, for the time being, they’ll only be shipping sotrovimab.

Based on this information, ASPR [Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response] will pause any further allocations of bamlanivimab and etesevimab together, etesevimab alone, and REGEN-COV pending updated data from the CDC.

Shipments of sotrovimab did resume this week, and delivery of 55,000 doses of product has begun. An additional 300,000 doses of sotrovimab will be available for distribution in January.

Quickie info on pharmacy patient portals

Does your pharmacy have a Web portal for patients? Annnnnnnnd, do you meet both these criteria?

• You’re curious about other pharmacies’ use of a portal, including how many of their patients use it, what security they use, what info they store, and so on.
• You don’t want a ton of info — just, say, a two-page overview with a few charts.

If so, the Drug Topics survey results on “Patient Portal Trends in Pharmacy” sounds like it might be for you. Click right here (2-page PDF)!

Can a nasal spray fight dementia?

Maybe. Japanese researchers found that giving mice with dementia a spray of rifampicin “removes oligomers from the brain and improves cognitive function,” in part because of an “increase[d] drug transferability to the brain.” Good news!

Unfortunately, one of rifampicin’s side effects is liver damage. Their solution: Combine it with resveratrol. And what d’ya know…

[T]he research group administered a fixed dose combination of rifampicin and resveratrol intranasally five days a week for a total of four weeks to mice models of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies, and observed their cognitive functions and brain pathology.

The results showed that the combination significantly improved the cognitive function of the mice, inhibited the accumulation of oligomers, and restored synaptophysin levels.

And because both rifampicin and resveratrol are existing, approved drugs, human trials can begin soon.

In shortage: pharmacy techs

“The latest worker shortage may affect your health,” reads the headline. “Pharmacies don’t have enough staff to keep up with prescriptions.”

The actual story: Pharmacy technicians “are quitting in waves” from retail pharmacies due to low pay, high stress, and what they say are unsafe working environments.

Al Carter, the executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, a nonprofit organization that represents state pharmacy regulators. “In some states you have 60 or 70 pharmacies that are closing for days on end, because they don’t have the appropriate staff.”

Why the stress? And why do they feel it’s unsafe? Because of [insert drumroll here] … lack of staffing.

So what’s behind the lack of staffing?

The 22 technicians NBC News spoke to made $11.90 to $23 an hour, even though some […] had more than a decade of experience.

Said APhA CEO Scott Knoer, “We have to pay pharmacy technicians more. It’s a rewarding job, but it’s not an easy job. So it’s not shocking that we have a shortage.”

The Long Read™: Smoking and weight gain

People quit smoking, they gain weight — cliché but true. Conventional wisdom said it was because they substituted one habit for another.

But maybe not. The weight gain might be due to changes in (wait for it) … the gut biome. Read on.