Metformin fights long Covid

Waaaaay back in 2021 we told you how diabetics who were taking metformin had a lower risk of dying from Covid-19.

Now a new study out of the University of Minnesota found that metformin can also help prevent long Covid.

Patients who had tested positive were given either metformin, ivermectin, fluvoxamine, or placebo, and only metformin showed any effect: a 39.4% lower incidence of long Covid than those who took a placebo, and it was even better if they started on the metformin sooner (a 63% lower risk).

“Without an alternative treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection to prevent subsequent long Covid, some providers may choose to prescribe metformin to patients presenting with Covid symptoms and a positive Covid test.”

Coming to a shortage list near you

Penicillin. Yep, Pfizer reports that the OG antibiotic — at least in its Bicillin prefilled syringe forms — is going to be in shortage for at least a year.

Pfizer attributes the supply hiccup to “complex combination” of factors, including “significant” demand increases and a rise in syphilis infection rates.

The company is working to increase production, and it expects the long-acting version to be available by the mid-2024 and the combo doses in the fall of that year.

The editor would remove any good headline we came up with

The name sounds like a joke, but it’s real: The FDA has approved Futura Medical’s Eroxon as the first OTC gel for treating erectile dysfunction. Not only is “Eroxon” the winner of the Best Product Name So Far in 2023, even better, it’s over-the-counter.

The important bits: Eroxon is rubbed on where it’s needed and works in about 10 minutes — long enough to say, “Be right back, honey, lemme make sure the kids are asleep.” According to the company, it “lasts long enough for successful sex in about 65% of people and should naturally subside.” (We take note of the words “successful” and “should.”)

Eroxon sells for the equivalent of about $31 in Belgium and the UK, and it could be available in the US of A in 2025.

Don’t look so surprised

In what should be a shock to absolutely no one, when the feds outsource Medicare to private companies, it overpays for treatment. In fact, an analysis out of USC found that taxpayers overpay those private companies to the tune of $75 billion a year — much higher than the $27 billion the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission had estimated.

Why so?

First, “coding intensity”: Private companies will come up with all sorts of conditions, tests, and treatments they can bill for — much more than traditional Medicare does.

Second, “biased selection”: Medicare Advantage payment rates are based on the assumption that beneficiaries are, overall, about average when it comes to their health. But MA patients tend to be healthier, so they need much less treatment.

All this means that the government needs to continue to audit the private companies to check those diagnosis codes, and — the USC folks recommend — revisit the idea of basing Medicare Advantage rates on what those sicker fee-for-service patients pay, calling that “increasingly problematic and costly to the government.”

Short Takes

Do we get a cut of the profits?

A new study out of Harvard found that prescriptions for oral minoxidil skyrocketed after a GPhA Buzz story in August 2022 touting the off-label (but effective) use of the hair-loss drug.

The weekly rate of first-time low-dose oral minoxidil (LDOM) prescriptions per 10,000 outpatient encounters was “significantly higher 8 weeks after vs. 8 weeks before article publication.”

Repeat after me

“Cutting back on social media reduces anxiety, depression, loneliness” — this time it’s from an Iowa State study.

Facebook spies on suicide hotlines

You can promise patients anonymity all you want, but when Facebook sticks its nose in, all bets are off. The company, it seems, has been collecting data from people who visit websites connected with the national 988 suicide-prevention hotline.

Many of the sites included buttons that allowed users to directly call either 988 or a local line for mental health help. But clicking on those buttons often triggered a signal to be sent to Facebook that shared information about what a visitor clicked on. A pixel on one site sent data to Facebook on visitors who clicked a button labeled “24-Hour Crisis Line” that called local crisis services.