Bee vaccine approved

No bees, no food — and bees are dying. Now, though, there’s a USDA-approved vaccine to protect honeybees from one disease that’s forcing beekeepers to destroy their hives.

The vaccine, which will initially be available to commercial beekeepers, aims to curb foulbrood, a serious disease caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae that can weaken and kill hives.

How bad is it? One in four hives in parts of the US has to be destroyed because of it, so this is good news if you like fruit, vegetables, nuts, berries, grain, or flowers.

Note: Honeybee vaccinations are not covered in GPhA’s upcoming vaccine training.

Insulin price caps in effect

In case you forgot, Medicare part D patients now have their insulin co-pays capped at $35 per month — that’s for people who take it by pen or syringe. On July 1, the same cap will apply to those who take insulin via pump (i.e., Medicare part B).

Side note: Washington, DC, and 20 states, although not including Georgia, also impose co-pay caps on state-regulated private health insurance plans, but that only affects a portion of employer-sponsored plans.

Fun fact: Insulin was patented in 1922 with the express goal of keeping it affordable for anyone who needed it.

A better Paxlovid

An experimental pill — called VV116 and developed in China (where, to be frank, it’s needed most) — works as well as Paxlovid without some of the side effects (e.g., altering their sense of taste) or interactions with other meds.

And before you roll your eyes because you don’t quite trust research out of China, I’ll point out that the phase 3 results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

VV116 is similar to the antiviral remdesivir, which the Food and Drug Administration has approved as an IV infusion. But the team behind the new drug — pharma companies Junshi Biosciences and Vigonvita Life Science — tweaked the formula so that the body can absorb it in pill form.

A cancer vax in the next decade?

Trials of the first mRNA-based cancer vaccines will start soon in Britain, as BioNTech tries to turn its Covid-vaccine technology to other diseases. (Technically it’s not a cancer vaccine — it’s a treatment that trains the body’s immune system to attack tumors.)

Thanks in part to the pandemic, mRNA vaccine development was sped up — why, you might even say to warp speed — making the technology advanced enough that BioNTech hopes to have a viable, personalize-able product in the next seven or eight years.

It’s a miracle drug!

Did you know that metformin can do more than help treat diabetes? As a matter of fact, it can slow aging, reduce menstrual irregularities, cut down long Covid, grow your hair back, make you taller, and insure no one ever discovers your cringe-worthy middle-school poetry.

Well, as long as you’re willing to believe questionable, un-reproduceable studies or social media influencers.

Its reputation has grown with a recent barrage of social media attention, including a viral posting by Silicon Valley-based internet entrepreneur and “biohacker” Serge Fague, who described taking two grams of the medication every day. “Have you heard about metformin?” asked one Twitter influencer.

Pro tip: Never believe anyone whose only credential is “influencer.”

Go away

“Travelling farther away from home linked to better health”:

People who travel more outside of their local area feel that they are healthier than those who stay closer to home.