One is enough … for now

The CDC says that, at least for now, having a single bivalent booster — e.g., the Omicron booster — is enough, even if you got it more than six months ago. Health officials’ focus, the San Francisco Chronicle explained, “is shifting from preventing new infections to reducing the severity of the disease.”

But doesn’t the shot only last a few months? True, but there hasn’t been a spike in infections lately, so the CDC is cool just chilling for a while.

Hologram of John Pemberton to speak at convention

John Stith Pemberton, the Georgia pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola in 1886, will be a featured speaker at the Georgia Pharmacy Convention thanks to a pair of modern technologies. Sort of.

A hologram of Pemberton will be projected onto the podium at the Thursday general session, using similar technology to what brought Tupac Shakur to the stage in 2012, more than 15 years after the singer’s death.

More interestingly, though, is that Pemberton’s presentation will be generated by a pharmacy-specific version of the ChatGPT AI software that was developed just for GPhA’s convention.

“The technology has matured enough that we’re able bring Pemberton to the stage using a machine about the size of a PC,” said Robert April, CEO of HistoryAlive Technologies, the Augusta-based company that’s providing the technology. “With ChatGPT, we’re able to add a new layer of realism.”

Pemberton will talk about his role as a pharmacist and how it shaped his development of what would become Coca-Cola. The details of his presentation aren’t pre-written, though — they’ll be generated by ChatGPT based on Pemberton’s own writings and biography.

“We’ll have to remember that he was a Confederate army veteran, a Freemason, and a morphine addict,” April cautioned, “So we can’t be entirely sure what will come out of his mouth.”

PS: Happy April Fools Day from GPhA. See you at convention!

Double-duty heart/apnea med

It’s a heart failure med! It’s a sleep apnea treatment! It’s both! A new drug developed in New Zealand can prevent continuing damage after heart failure and also treat sleep apnea. In fact, were it to come to market, it would be the only pharmaceutical treatment for apnea. (More on that in a moment.)

The drug, called AF-130, can do both because “The part of the brain that sends nervous impulses to the heart is also controlling respiration.” So when AF-130 tells the brain to get out of “fight or flight” mode after heart failure, that same signal helps stimulate breathing. Kind of like yelling “Fire!” could cause one person to flee a building and another to launch a torpedo.

As for coming to market, the Kiwis say that AF-130 is about to be approved by the FDA for a different condition (they don’t say what, unfortunately), so they can jump into human trials for these new indications quickly.

Someone thought this was a good idea

What happens when you combine a gut-muscle stimulant with a relaxant? You get Starbucks new olive oil-infused coffee.

Sine Die

By Melissa Reybold, vice president of public policy

’Twas the last night of session,
And all through the House,
The representatives waited their turn,
To speak on bills they espouse.

Speaker Burns at the podium,
With gavel in hand,
His brief breaks were covered,
By the eloquent Speaker Jan.

Lobbyists outside each chamber,
Waiting for their bills to be called,
While lawmakers read pleading texts,
From those “friends in the hall.”

Some bills took quite a while,
So lawmakers checked their cells,
While others delayed the vote,
Speaking down in the well.

Bills got added to others,
Like cannabis and hemp,
Unfortunately, that one got gummed up,
And won’t make its way to Kemp.

White baggin’ was waiting,
After thinking it was dead,
But it wasn’t called for a vote,
So, no votes green or red.

Some passed the time,
Listening for the lingo,
Waiting to cross it off,
On the Sine Die Bingo.

The tech vaccine passed,
Earlier that day,
Now Governor Kemp has to sign it,
Before the 11^th^ of May.

All ACIP vaccines,
For 18 and above?
This is one law passed,
That our pharmacists will love.

Low volume pharmacies,
Will be thrilled to see,
A line item in the budget,
For an increased dispensing fee*.

* $11.50 Medicaid dispensing fee for stores under 65,000 scripts/year

Your pharmacist legislators,
Fought for you under the Dome,
Thank you Butch and Ron,
Now, enjoy your time at home.

Bills that didn’t make it and
not voted on this year,
Are eligible in 2024,
When they can reappear.

For an in-depth discussion on session,
And networking with food and drink,
Register for your spring region meeting,
When we send you the link!

A new kind of weight-loss med

A new drug can help your fat rats become thinner by getting them to stop eating — and without nausea and vomiting. A new weekly injectable peptide treatment out of Syracuse University targets “three different weight-loss and glucoregulatory receptor pathways at the same time,” meaning the rats don’t want to eat.

This is a benefit, the researchers say, because you don’t end up with rats who want to eat but can’t. Rather, they feel full. “[W]e aim to chemically replicate the benefits of surgery without patients having to undergo surgery.” And it works:

The drug caused obese rats to eat up to 80% less than they would typically eat. By the end of one 16-day study, they lost an average of 12% of their weight.

(Sharp-eyed readers may wonder how they can say it doesn’t cause vomiting in rats, when rats can’t vomit. They tested it in shrews, too.)

Opioid abuse: red flags to watch for

So, to keep out of the DEA’s crosshairs you’re on the lookout for “suspicious prescriptions for controlled substances.” Good for you. There are obvious signs, like a handwritten script that spells “Rx” wrong, but what else should you be looking for?

The good folks at Pharmacy Practice News have the answers to that very question, as well as some advice if the feds come a-knockin’.

Bad and good mutations; bad and better flu shots

A single problematic protein in a flu vaccine can make it less effective. That’s what scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found, and it could lead to creating annual flu shots that are more effective.

It seems that, while the virus is being grown in chicken eggs to make that year’s vaccine, a mutation in its hemagglutinin can make it less “human like” and thus less effective. And that, they say, could be why many season’s vaccines don’t work very well even when they match the current strain.

Luckily, not every virus has that mutation. In fact, some have a different mutation that not only doesn’t destabilize the hemagglutinin, but also prevents that first mutation from occurring.

Bottom line: Before they start growing virus strains to make a vaccine, pharma companies should test those strains to see if they have the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ versions of hemagglutinin.