House to investigate PBMs

One of the many investigations the US House of Reps is launching is actually useful: As NCPA cheers it on, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is launching an investigation into PBMs.

Kicking off the probe, Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is calling on the three largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx — to provide documents, communications, and information related to their practices that are distorting the pharmaceutical market and limiting high quality care for patients.

All we can say: Good hunting!

Fun pharmacy tech stats

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board surveyed technicians, and now Becker’s Hospital Review is sharing some of the results. Did you know …

• 4 percent of technicians have a master’s degree, and 2 percent have a doctorate?
• Almost 30 percent got a pay increase for becoming certified, but 34 percent said they got bupkis?
• 85 percent are very or at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs?

Check out the story for the details. And more stats are coming your way soon — look for the Numbers Issue of Georgia Pharmacy magazine in your mailbox!

More humans getting bird flu

You might want to quietly stock up on toilet paper again. China has reported three more cases of bird flu jumping to humans — one of H5N6 (often fatal) and two of H9N2 (usually mild).

Human cases are rare because the virus can only attach to receptors deep in our lungs; they have to pass through a gauntlet of defenses first. But if one mutates to infect differently….

This year’s flu vax was pretty good

This season’s flu vaccine was 54% effective at protecting adults under 65 against disease, according to the CDC — that’s about average. It was 71% effective for people under 18, which is pretty darned good.

Still…

[T]here were an estimated 25 million illnesses, 280,000 hospitalizations, and 18,000 flu-related deaths caused by this flu season as of February 24, 2023.

Sell eye masks, make patients smarter

An international group of researchers found that wearing an eye mask while you sleep not only keeps you from seeing your high school crush dancing with your English teacher while you sit naked taking a final exam you aren’t prepared for^*, it can also improve “episodic learning and alertness” by reducing the ambient light that’s in most people’s bedrooms.

[T]he participants performed better on a word-pair association task, which measures the ability to recall events and experiences, after having their eyes covered while sleeping. They also performed better on a test that measures reaction times.

Also, as any child under 10 will tell you, if you can’t see the Thing in the Closet, it can’t see you.

^* I mean, just as an example.

Captain Obvious is a little tired of singing this song

“Medically accurate asthma information sparse on TikTok”

While the researchers classified 13.7% of the videos as medically accurate, another 13.7% were medically inaccurate. Also, 7.8% were about pet asthma, 5.9% offered helpful advice […], 3.9% mocked asthma, and 2% shared improper inhaler techniques.

Short Takes

ICYMI: RSV vaxes get closer

An FDA panel — not the FDA itself, yet — has recommended approval of both Pfizer’s and GSK’s RSV vaccines for people over 60. Now, like twins in the womb, the race is on to see who’s out first.

Shigella watch

The CDC is warning about an increase in drug-resistant shigella infections. In 2015, no cases were of the resistant variety (called XDR); today that’s 5%. Not a huge jump, but shigellosis can be deadly, and it can spread its antimicrobial resistance to other bugs.