Acetaminophen raises BP too

For patients with cardiovascular disease, acetaminophen is safer than NSAIDs because … well, because. One reason is that NSAIDs can cause higher blood pressure, so better to use a non-NSAID.

Problem: No one was sure whether acetaminophen also raises BP. Guess what? It does. Researchers in Allentown, Pa.’s Lehigh Valley Health Network “found a significant correlation between the use of acetaminophen and elevated systolic blood pressure.”

Acetaminophen has other benefits, like the reduced risk of bleeding, but it still needs to be used with caution, say the Lehigh Valley folks. One caveat: The study looked at high doses, “so we don’t really know whether the more common patterns of using one to two acetaminophen pills every once in a while is problematic.”

We’ve got a new twist on CE: History!

That’s right — GPhA has four courses this October on the creepy history of pharmacy …

Forget the same-old, same-old continuing ed. Try something new and fun: Pharmacy Tales from the Crypt.

From the story of the first use of anesthesia — it was a UGA grad! — to Agatha Christie’s love of poison, and more, get a taste of a different flavor of education (possibly almond).

Each course is just $16 for GPhA members ($19 for non-members) and is 100% virtual, via Zoom.

Light your candles, put Mike Oldfield on in the background, and sign up today at GPhA.org/crypt.

The superdodger gene

Most people, it seems, have already had at least one bout of Covid-19 (including 80% of children). But some people just haven’t gotten it despite being exposed. What’s with that?

It turns out that — while it’s impossible not to be infected — some people will never show symptoms or even necessarily test positive. Researchers at UC San Francisco have figured out why: a genetic mutation that prevents a person from ever having Covid symptoms.

It’s a version of a gene called HLA “that helps a person clear out a SARS-CoV-2 so fast that their body doesn’t have a chance to develop symptoms.” Essentially, their bodies are “pre-programmed to recognize and fight off SARS-CoV-2.”

Could this lead to better treatments? Better vaccines? You know the mantra: More research is needed.

Up your nose

The future of Covid vaccines is through the nose

And intranasal vaccine, suggests a paper out of the University of Buffalo, “is key to ultimately controlling the pandemic.”

[T]he most robust immunity against Covid-19 comes about as a result of infection that takes place in the upper respiratory tract and the mouth, and gives rise to mucosal immunity through the secretion of Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies.

Other experts agree

Omicron in particular is so transmissible, we need to stop it as soon as possible, they say.

Next-generation nasal or oral vaccines could quickly boost the immune response in the very airways where COVID-19 enters the body and ultimately break our reliance on the constant development of reformulated shots to target new variants of concern.

But one does not

Biochemist William Haseltine says we really don’t have enough info about their effectiveness: “Nasal Vaccines May Not Be The Game Changer We Think They Are.” (Although one of his arguments, that FluMist failed for a couple of years as a nasal flu vaccine, is a bit weak. That was five years ago and the problem has been fixed.)

mRNA flu vax gets closer to arms

Pfizer and its BFF BioNTech say their mRNA-based flu vaccine is now entering phase-3 testing. Assuming it works, the big advantage is not that it offers better protection, but that the technology makes it faster to update the vaccine for whatever variant is circulating.

Currently each year’s vaccine has to be chosen months in advance, based on what’s happen in Australia — it takes that long to do the whole egg thing to make enough of the stuff. With mRNA, updates and production are much quicker.

The Swiss raid Novartis

In the US, drug companies create “patent thickets” to protect their drugs from competition — they patent every little bit they can to make it harder for a competitor to not violate one of them. And we’re cool with that (mostly).

The Swiss, on the other hand, are less forgiving, to the point that the Swiss Competition Commission “conducted a dawn raid” at the Novartis offices on Tuesday.

“The company allegedly attempted to protect its drug for the treatment of skin diseases against competing products by using one of its patents to initiate litigation proceedings.”

Today’s grain-of-salt story

A daily multivitamin might “help maintain cognitive health with aging, and possibly prevent cognitive decline” … according to a study funded by Mars, Inc., which happens to make multivitamins (alongside M&Ms).

To be fair to Mars, the study also found that there was no benefit to eating chocolate, because the good stuff — cocoa flavanols — are destroyed when the cocoa is processed.

Elsewhere: Belgian prescriptions

A pilot program in Brussels allows doctors there to prescribe free museum visits for patients.

On the one hand, it aims to give vulnerable people access to culture, while on the other hand, it is hoped it will offer therapeutic support in addition to the treatment of the patient.