Glow-in-the-light cancer

A new drug has a nifty effect: It makes lung cancer glow. You can imagine how that’s helpful for surgeons — much less chance of missing some bits of tumor.

Pafolacianine (Cytalux at formal dinners) isn’t something that needs to be injected into the tumor, either. Patients get it directly, and the pafolacianine binds to folic acid — which tumors tend to have a lot more of. Shine a bit of infrared light, and bingo! No hiding any more.

Another quinapril recall

Lupin has recalled its hypertension drug quinapril “because of unacceptable levels of the nitrosamine impurity, N-nitroso-quinapril, a potential carcinogen.” Click here for affected lot numbers and NDCs.

The next opioid lawsuit

What, you thought all the opioid lawsuits were over? Oh you sweet, summer child. Not at all. The latest target is AmerisourceBergen, which the Department of Justice is taking to court for what it says is Amerisource Bergen’s role in the opioid crisis.

The complaint said AmerisourceBergen […] repeatedly refused or negligently failed to flag suspicious orders by pharmacy customers when it had reason to know that opioids were being diverted to illegal channels.

But it’s more than turning a blind eye that the company is accused of:

The lawsuit said AmerisourceBergen prioritized profits over the well-being of Americans and intentionally altered how one of its units monitored orders, dramatically reducing the number of controlled-substance orders that underwent internal review. (Emphasis ours.)

Twist: AmerisourceBergen board members were sued by investors over the company’s role in the opioid epidemic, but a judge ruled last week that the board’s actions to keep the addictive drugs out of the black market “were sufficient to avoid liability.”

China-Covid watch continues

While the Chinese government continues to claim there are only a handful of Covid deaths in the country recently, British researchers figured that “Around 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from Covid-19.”

The research company, Airfinity, said it expects the current Chinese outbreak to end in mid-January, when the country will have about 584,000 cumulative deaths. (That sounds like a lot, until you realize that the US has had more than 1.1 million Covid deaths so far.)

Today’s anti-cancer plant

The latest plant that can treat cancer is [insert drumroll here] Sarunashi. Never heard of it? That’s because it’s grown in Japan, which happens to be where researchers uncovered its anti-mutagenesis, -inflammation, -skin tumorigenesis effects.

They narrowed the effect down to a specific polyphenolic compound called isoQ that apparently reduces the mutagenic properties of carcinogens and accelerate DNA repair.

Obviously more studies are needed. And if you’re able to get your hands on some Sarunashi juice, apparently it has an … interesting flavor. As one reviewer put it, “It smells a little bit like the green gummy bear of Haribo, but the taste is totally different […] It is a little bit like a thin green smoothie with sugar.”

The Long Read: McKesson Shout-Out edition

A nine-year-old girl needed Erwinaze. But it was in shortage, so she was going to die. Or not.

McKesson told her that it didn’t have any Erwinaze in any of its warehouses anywhere in the world. But it offered something else: help moving the drug. If Bray could find the Erwinaze, company representatives said, they would get it to her daughter.

Warm body, cold cash

If money is an issue for you, and you’re a fan of science, Business Insider has you covered with “10 ways to make money by selling your body to science.” (Even better: You don’t (always) have to be dead!)