It’s not your father’s testosterone patch

For the first time, women prescribed testosterone might have a more convenient and appropriate option at their neighborhood pharmacy: a patch.

Clinical trials of a testosterone patch designed for women — i.e., with a dosage more appropriate for them — are beginning in Britain, and could lead to a better treatment for all those symptoms that go with menopause.

Although testosterone creams and gels are available to help women with loss of sex drive in some countries, they have to apply the correct amount to their skin themselves, and in some cases have to use products originally designed for men.

The article doesn’t mention compounding pharmacies, though, which have been creating this kind of custom-dose, custom-delivery medication for a long time — just on a much smaller scale than the British patch would be.

The other danger with antibiotic overprescribing

That other danger is patient harm — like, direct patient harm, not just the long-term threat of antibiotic resistance.

A big retrospective study out of Intermountain Health and Stanford University — looking at the insurance and medical records of 23 million people — found that getting the wrong antibiotic, or an unnecessary one, often ended up sending people back for help dealing with side effects from a medication that didn’t do them any good anyway.

Researchers found that some of the most dangerous antibiotics were rarely indicated and commonly used, leading to one in 300 of those patients experiencing side effects dire enough to require a follow up doctor’s visit—or even hospitalization.

Addiction, use, or maintenance?

If someone uses a drug therapeutically, is that considered a ‘use disorder’? Probably not — you don’t hear about “insulin-use disorder” or “fiorinal-use disorder.” That means, argues a Rutgers researcher, that we need to start rethinking how we diagnose cannabis-use disorder.

“[T]he manual used to define substance-use disorders was developed before the sharp rise in cannabis use for therapeutic purposes. This means that the diagnostic manual considers cannabis to be an illicit substance, even if a person reports cannabis use only for therapeutic purposes.

Furry cuteness of doom

You might know that having pets from an early age can help kids grow up without food allergies. But there’s one big exception. Hamsters.

According to Japanese researchers, while “exposure to dogs and cats might be beneficial against the development of certain food allergies,” when it comes to hamsters, kids who grew up with them were actually more at risk of developing a nut allergy.

Jumping fungus

I could write a whole bunch about “another thing to worry about” or make a reference to The Last of Us, but I think I’ll just let this stand on its own:

In what researchers suggest is the first reported case of its kind, a 61-year-old Indian mycologist appears to have contracted a rather serious case of silver leaf disease in his own throat.

The Long Read: Everything you need to know about how the feds are tackling PBMs

From the Senate Committee on Commerce to the FTC to bipartisan House groups, the federal government is starting to wake up and see the writing on the wall. (It says, “PBMs are not our friends.”)

Short Takes

Carter launches bipartisan pharma group

Meet the Domestic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Caucus for the 118th Congress. Its goal:

[A]dvancing legislation that incentivizes more domestic production for essential medicines to reduce American reliance on foreign adversaries, head off potential supply chain disruptions, and ensure a steady supply of pharmaceuticals in the event of public health emergencies or natural disasters.

It’s over when it’s over

“WHO tracking Omicron XBB.1.16 subvariant, rising cases in some countries”:

“So this is one to watch. It’s been in circulation for a few months. We haven’t seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations, but that’s why we have these systems in place.”