J&J joins in the blame game

Why does Johnson & Johnson keep raising the prices of its medication above the rate of inflation? According to the company, it’s not because of R&D costs, it’s because it has to pay more in rebates, discounts, and fees. It’s the latest in the finger-pointing game that healthcare companies play, each blaming the others for high prices.

In J&J’s case, it says that while the list prices of its drugs went up, the net prices (i.e., after discounts) dropped 3.5%. (It wouldn’t provide data on those list prices, though.) It claimed that more than half of its list prices — 58% — were given back.

J&J’s rebates, discounts and fees added up to $39 billion last year, according to the report, with $11.2 billion going to commercial payers and pharmacy benefit managers, while $8.9 billion went to Medicare and Medicaid programs.

New virus in the news

While Covid and RSV get all the attention when it comes to respiratory viruses, healthcare officials are quietly sounding the alarm^* about another bug: human metapneumovirus, or HMPV. Often HMPV goes unnoticed unless someone is specifically tested for it, but it can send you to hospital. This spring it “filled hospital intensive care units with young children and seniors who are the most vulnerable to these infections.”

In fact, only RSV causes more respiratory infections in kids. And older folks can end up in the ICU. There’s no cure or vaccine; it’s just a matter of treating symptoms.

Here’s a not-so-fun fact: HMPV was only discovered in 2001 — there are a lot of unknown respiratory viruses out there.

Respiratory infections are the leading cause of death for children around the world and the No. 1 reason kids are hospitalized in the United States, but scientists don’t know what causes a good chunk of them.

And another: Once you get HMPV, you aren’t immune. “The infection generates weak or incomplete immune protection, however, and humans get reinfected throughout their lives.”

^* Yeah, that’s an oxymoron, but it’s pretty accurate.

The latest long Covid list

The latest semi-official catalog of long Covid symptoms comes out of NYU and is based on examinations of 10,000 people. Unfortunately, several of them are so generic (thirst?) that their usefulness seems limited (abnormal movements?), but the point is more to create a catalog of what you might expect rather than a diagnostic tool.

Ready?

• Post-exertional malaise, or worsening of symptoms after mild activity
• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Dizziness
• Gastrointestinal symptoms
• Heart palpitations
• Issues with sexual desire or capacity
• Loss of smell or taste
• Thirst
• Chronic cough
• Chest pain
• Abnormal movements

The 10-cent BP tester

Who needs one of those old-fashioned sphygmomanometers when you can just use a smartphone and a 10-cent device instead, without the hassle of looking up the spelling?

UC San Diego engineers have developed a 3-D printable blood pressure measurement system that clips to a smartphone camera and flash. An app to walk users through the process, which involves simply pressing on the device. That’s it. It doesn’t require calibration, and the clip-on doohickey — which essentially uses a pinhole camera — costs a dime to create.

“A blood pressure monitoring clip could be given to you at your checkup, much like how you get a pack of floss and toothbrush at your dental visit.”

Not only would it be good for lower-income patients, the device could be printed on site anywhere in the world to help healthcare efforts in poor countries.

AI helps fight hospital bug

Acinetobacter baumannii is a nasty little bug that likes to hang out in hospitals, and — you guessed it — it’s resistant to a lot of antibiotics. So McMaster University and MIT researchers asked a computer for help. They gave it a library of 7,000 compounds to consider and asked it which ones might, based on their molecular shape, work against A. baumannii.

Dutifully, the AI complied and spit out (metaphorically) a compound that’s since been named “abaucin.” That doesn’t mean it’s found a new drug — rather, it’s cut down the trial-and-error time for drug discovery by identifying a molecule more likely to work as one.

Abaucin is especially promising, the researchers report, because it only targets A. baumannii, a crucial finding which means the pathogen is less likely to rapidly develop drug resistance, and which could lead to more precise and effective treatments.

Short Takes

Another (potential) Lyme treatment

A Northeastern University biologist claims than an old antibiotic, hygromycin A, is effective against Lyme disease — and it can even prevent its chronic form. The big deal: It does this, he says, without harming gut bacteria the way broad-spectrum drugs do.

Get off your butt (so you don’t die)

Just a bit of aerobic exercise — even if it’s not enough to register on a FitBit — can reduce your risk from dying from pneumonia and the flu.

Flu vax effectiveness

The first data of the 2022–23 flu vaccine effectiveness is out, based on several European studies, so there’s a range of effectiveness rather than a single number. The gist:

• Overall the vaccine was 28% to 46.0% for preventing influenza A infection.
  • Children had better protection: 49% to 77%.
• Overall the vaccine was greater than 50% effective against influenza B.
  • Again, it was more effective for children — between 87% and 95%.