Trulicity is for quitters

When people quit smoking, weight gain can be an issue. (You know this.) Now Swiss researchers have found a drug to help prevent that: dulaglutide, aka Trulicity.

After quitting smoking…

Women on dulaglutide lost around 1–2 kilos compared with weight gain of around 2–2.5 kilos for women in the dummy treatment group.

Men taking dulaglutide shed just over half a kilo compared with weight gain of around 2 kilos among those in the dummy treatment group.

This isn’t entirely surprising, as dulaglutide is yet another GLP-1 drug that can help with weight loss. The better bit, say the researchers, is that the drug didn’t hurt patients’ short-term quit rates.

For smokers afraid to quit because of weight gain, the Swiss think a bit of Trulicity can help overcome the worry.

PharmPAC back in action

Now that the recently called Special Session is over, we can resume with giving donations to state lawmakers. Chairman Noel Williams made a visit to Adams Drug Store in Cordele where owner and GPhA Past President Jonathan Sinyard presented him with a PharmPAC check.

Chairman Williams is the vice chair of the House Insurance Committee, so he will likely hear bills relating to PBMs in 2024. Chairman Williams definitely supports GPhA because his wife, Laura, is pharmacist and works with Jonathan at Adams Drug Store! We appreciate his continued support! —Melissa Reybold

Thumbs-up for inhaled vaccines

There’s been good reason to think that inhaled vaccines for respiratory illnesses would work better than injections — they get the drugs right to the lungs where they’re needed, after all.

Now we’ve made the jump from educated guess to evidence, with three separate studies. They confirm that, if you want to protect a monkey from Covid-19, an inhaled, mucosal vaccine can last longer and possibly offer broader protection.

Together, the studies show that how and where vaccines are delivered can have a profound effect on the immunity generated and the protection conferred. The latest results also raise hopes that mucosal vaccines that offer ‘sterilising’ immunity — complete blockage of infection — could become a reality.

Will that hold true for humans? Finding out is next on the list.

An interesting (and long-lasting) anxiety drug

A company called MindMed is planning to begin phase 3 trials of a new drug called MM-120 that can treat both generalized anxiety disorder and ADHD.

Interesting bit #1: MM-120 appears to provide relief for at least a month on just a single dose.

Interesting bit #2: Unlike some other new psychoactive drugs, patients saw “clinically meaningful improvements” without therapy.

Burying the lede: MM-120 is a tartrate form of lysergide D — which you (and your friends with the sugar cubes in the little plastic bag) know as LSD.

Patients probably won’t even realize they’re taking a psychodelic except possibly on day one, with “side effects such as hallucinations and euphoric mood only occurring on dose day.”

Barbie plays fast and loose with safety

It wouldn’t be 2023 without at least one Barbie story related to pharmacy (sort of). You’re welcome.

A study out of Indiana University — published in the BMJ — looked at the medical professions Barbie has held, and it found some serious shortcomings.

For one thing, she’s never been a pharmacist, although she has been various types of physician (including an ophthalmologist three times), nurse, dentist, and paramedic. She’s almost always adult and female^*, and she’s usually white.

But perhaps most shockingly…

[N]o doll fully met professional safety standards for their respective fields. For example, 98% of the Barbie brand doctor dolls came with stethoscopes, but only 4% had face masks and none had disposable gloves.

It gets worse. More than two thirds of medical-pro Barbies…

… also wore loose hair, and more than half wore high heeled shoes, even in settings where this would be discouraged or actively prohibited for safety reasons.

It gets even worse when Barbie’s younger sister, Chelsea, gets involved. Wrote the study’s author:

“She looks to be under age 10 but is working with an alcohol burner and glassware, and it doesn’t look like there is an adult there to help her. I just thought, ‘who would leave a kid alone with alcohol burners?’”

^* Well, duh.

The Long Read: Underused Arthritis Test edition

A lot of rheumatoid arthritis patients don’t respond to methotrexate, and even a TNF inhibitor doesn’t help. Often their rheumatologists know this. But insurers and PBMs don’t care, and they require patients to try one drug after another even when a physician knows the right drug to use (Orencia): “Insurers lean toward TNFis such as adalimumab, commonly sold as brand-name Humira, in part because they get large rebates from manufacturers for using them.”

But now there’s a test that can “identify the roughly 60% of patients who are very unlikely to respond to a TNFi drug.” Called PrismRA, it’s the first of a new class of diagnostics that can save patients time and pain … but will insurers let doctors use it?

Today’s non-pharma horrific medical story

Every year at holiday time the media rolls out the same warnings: seasonal depression, flammable trees, alcohol poisoning, kissing the hobo under the mistletoe, and so on.

Here’s a new and, frankly, terrifying one: “Risk of penile fractures rises at Christmas, doctors find.”

The fractures are often heralded by an audible crack, followed by severe pain, rapid loss of erection and severe swelling and bruising. “When [patients] present to their doctor their penis often looks like an eggplant.”

Gentlemen, let’s be careful out there.