Chains cut pharmacy hours

Pharmacists are getting closer to being on the endangered species list, and that means both CVS and Walmart have announced they’re “adjusting” their pharmacy hours as a result of the shortage of pharmacists.

CVS will start its “adjustment” in March, which will include cutting some hours in some stores. Walmart will adjust its pharmacy hours in most stores by closing at 7:00 pm — two hours early.

Per Walmart: “[W]e are making this change to not only enhance their [pharmacists’] work-life balance but also to maintain the best level of service for our customers.”

What’s with the antibiotic shortage?

The entire world is facing shortages of antibiotics — including amoxicillin, ceftolozane, and penicillin — to one degree or another, but what’s behind it?

Demand tops the list, as PharmaPhorum explains, but it’s hardly the only issue.

“Recently, shortages have been exacerbated by geopolitical events or trends, such as the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, high inflation rates, as well as the recent surge of Covid-19 cases in China.”

Introducing the Jeff Lurey Independent Community Pharmacy scholarship

GPhA is proud to announce the Jeff Lurey Independent Community Pharmacy Scholarship — a $5,000 award presented annually to a P3 student pharmacist at one of Georgia’s four pharmacy schools.

Who is eligible

  • P3 students who are current GPhA members and enrolled at either Mercer, PCOM, South, or UGA’s school/college of pharmacy
  • A person who has expressed an interest in owning an independent pharmacy after graduation

What judges will consider

  • Have you worked in or completed a rotation in an independent pharmacy?
  • Have you attended a GPhA region meeting or the Georgia Pharmacy Convention?
  • Have you taken business or entrepreneurial classes?
  • Do you have a family member who owns or operates an independent pharmacy?
  • Are you able to attend the Georgia Pharmacy Convention to receive the award?

Applications will be judged by the AIP Executive Committee, and the AIP Board of Directors will decide the final recipient.

Applications for the Jeff Lurey Independent Community Pharmacy Scholarship are due by March 1, 2023. (The winner will be notified by May 1 so he or she can make plans to attend the convention.)

Don’t wait! Apply today!

Update your address book

AmerisourceBergen now identifies as Cencora. That is all.

Oxytocin: Who needs it?

Ah, the love hormone — necessary for … well, if not love, at least for forming social attachments that lead to love, kids, and all that fun stuff. Or so we thought.

Neuroscientists in California tested the theory on prairie voles not only because they’re adorable (the voles, not necessarily the researchers), but because they form life-long pairs, share parenting duties, and even “show signs of preferring their partner over strangers of the opposite sex, and actively reject new partners.”

But when the voles were genetically engineered to completely lack oxytocin receptors, they still bonded. We’re talking not only the metaphorical snogging behind the bleachers, but all the normal bonded-pair behaviors, up to and including rearing their pups to weaning age.

“We were all shocked that no matter how many different ways we tried to test this, the voles demonstrated a very robust social attachment with their sexual partner, as strong as their normal counterparts.”

And that is how what we “know” becomes “what we used to think.”

Once more, with numbness

The WHO has extended the Covid-19 public health emergency, but “signaled strongly that it believes it may be able to lift that designation in coming months.”

Soybeans vs cholesterol

When we first saw the story that soybean protein might be as good as statins for lowering cholesterol, we assumed it had been sponsored by Big Soybean. But it wasn’t.

In fact, the University of Illinois researchers found that it isn’t simply soybeans, but a particular protein: B-conglycinin. Soybeans with higher levels of B-conglycinin block metabolism of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol and — via [insert science here] — “were able to reduce lipid accumulation by 50%-70% […] That was comparable to the statin, which reduced it by 60%.”

Of course, this was just in the lab, but it shows a potentially different path to regulating lipid metabolism.

Scary man to target pharma companies

When you consider politicians, who would be a fun neighbor to have? In the Buzz offices, both George W. Bush and Joe Biden come to mind as cool dudes.

But (regardless of your politics) who would be an absolutely terrifying neighbor?

Now Bernie is chairman of the Senate health committee*, and that makes pharma companies his metaphorical neighbors — neighbors who’ve let their lawns get a little too tall.

Money quote: “However scared they are, they’re not scared enough.”

* Technically the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

Today’s grain-of-salt story

Eating grapes could reduce your chances of getting surnburnt … according to a small study (partially) funded by the California Table Grape Commission. (They think it might have something to do with — you guessed it — the gut biome.)