Coming soon from Prol-E-Fine Pharmaceuticals….

To help ease the shortage of cancer drugs, the FDA said it will allow “10 additional lots of the common cancer drug cisplatin to be distributed by the Chinese company Qilu Pharmaceutical.” Technically, these lots are not FDA approved, but ‘needs must’ and all that.

The shortage is also partly due to drug manufacturers lacking an incentive to invest in generic drugs, which have smaller profit margins. This has lead to a limited number of generic facilities operating at near-capacity levels.

J&J sues docs for “junk litigation opinions”

So a big portion of the Johnson & Johnson talcum powder/cancer connection is based testimony from four doctors who said they examined 75 people with malignant mesothelioma — people who claimed they weren’t exposed to anything that might have caused mesothelioma except baby powder.

Now J&J is suing those doctors, claiming that not only was their testimony false — at least some of those people were exposed to asbestos in other ways — but that those doctors were involved in gaming the system for personal gain.

According to the suit…

“They publish their junk litigation opinions in scientific journals. They use their credentials to instill their publications with false credibility. They then build from that fraudulent foundation by citing to each other’s work.”

Shout out to Ira

GPhA member extraordinaire Ira Katz is on television once again, this time talking to Atlanta’s channel 11 about the coming OTC birth control pills.

The Long Read: Sex, meds, and rock and roll

Having XX or XY chromosomes doesn’t just give you a different perspective on how to properly load a dishwasher. Scientists are learning “how sex chromosomes and hormones affect people’s risk for certain diseases — and whether the biology behind those differences can be harnessed to improve treatments.”

That’s because, as always when it comes to genetics, genes often do double-, triple-, or even more-ple duty, leading to unexpected differences and explaining facts like “Men are more likely to develop severe Covid, but emerging evidence suggests long Covid is more common among women.”

Read on, from Axios.

Attention 1998–2003 grads

If you’re still paying off a student loan, the Biden administration has good news for you. The Supreme Court may have nixed its plan for broader loan forgiveness, but Biden & Co. has another idea that doesn’t involve Congress — but it (currently) would only affect people who have been paying back loans for 20 to 25 years. But it could take effect quickly.

Keeping dental antibiotics down

Dentists, apparently, can have a habit of overprescribing antibiotics, and at this point we all know why that’s a bad idea. Who can help cut down unnecessary prescriptions? If you said “An angry mob with torches and pitchforks,” you’re technically correct, but obviously we’re talking about pharmacists.

Japan has an official program to reduce antimicrobial use, and researchers there wanted to see what effect a pharmacist-led program would have on dental prescriptions. It included “post-prescription feedback” along with a push to use penicillin instead of broader-range antibiotics, and “an educational program for dental students.”

They tried this for 7 years and reviewed the results. Not surprisingly, it worked: Penicillin scripts were up and broad-spectrum antimicrobial scripts declined. No pitchforks needed.

Short Takes

Unexpected brain cancer treatment

A two-drug combo for treating melanoma turns out to work on a rare type of brain cancer called papillary craniopharyngioma.

The drugs — vemurafenib and cobimetinib, both marketed by Genentech — turned out to be incredibly effective, and tumors shrank by over 90% on average.

September boost

Covid booster shots should be available by late September according to HHS, which is working with Moderna, Novavax , and Pfizer to make sure those XBB-specific vaccines “will remain available in the types of locations where the public currently receives them.”

While these vaccines have moved to the private market (i.e., it’s up to individual insurers to pay for them, or for patients to pay out of pocket), the government will still pay for uninsured children to be vaccinated.

Do something nice this weekend

It probably matters more than you think.