Pharmacy orgs: Don’t trust Canadian drugs

GPhA is one of dozens of state^* and national pharmacy organizations that signed a letter expressing their concern about Florida’s plan to import some drugs from Canada. The program, they say, “could open the door for harmful and counterfeit drugs to enter our nation’s drug supply, with no evidence that this will result in cost savings for our patients.”

How could Canada’s drug supply be harmful, you ask? Aside from the maple flavoring added by law, the issue is the US’s Drug Supply Chain and Security Act — aka “Track and Trace” — that essentially creates a closed drug-distribution system here. It means a bottle’s pedigree can easily be checked, and counterfeiting is much harder.

“Canada does not have a similar law,” the letter points out, “leaving our drug supply chain at risk under Florida’s program.”

^* 43 states plus DC and Puerto Rico, and including our friends at the Georgia Society of Health-System Pharmacists

Step towards an HIV vaccine

It’s a small advance, but it’s a critical one: Duke researchers working on HIV vaccines have confirmed that their vaccine designed for monkeys can “induce broadly neutralizing antibodies” against HIV.

The “broadly neutralizing” is the important bit; it indicates that the antibodies aren’t necessarily monkey-specific. The “antibodies generated in the animals were structurally and genetically similar to the antibodies needed in humans.”

The next steps will involve developing it into a vaccine candidate for human testing.

Don’t mix ED and chest pain meds

Men taking Cialis, Levitra, or Viagra along with a nitrate “had a higher risk of heart failure, early death, and other negative health outcomes” than those taking just the nitrate, according to a Swedish study of more than 60,000 men with a history of heart issues.

The issue, it seems, is that both meds can cause a drop in blood pressure, although the study didn’t look at the details. The blood-pressure issue was known, but now there’s Swedish confirmation that yes, taking them both can kill you. But perhaps you’d die happy.

They come for the vax and stay for the checkup

There’s a silver lining to the push to vaccinate seniors during respiratory virus season: After they shuffle into the doctor’s office, they tend to stay to get a checkup.

“These are seniors, many of whom have not been to the office for a long time, they’ve come back in, they’ve now got vaccinated, their physicians have picked up other things while they’ve been there.”

This came from a report by UnitedHealth Group that explained in part why health insurers’ stock prices took a hit — they’re having to pay for all that extra health care. (Of course, it’s an ounce of prevention that’s going to save them in the long run, so everybody wins.)

Captain Obvious avoids the left lane

“Seniors Who Smoke Weed & Drive Are Road Hazards: Study”

More measles are coming

Score one for the anti-vax crowd: More measles outbreaks are happening in the US — the latest are in New Jersey, DC, and Philly^* — and experts are expecting more to come as local vaccination rates dip below the level needed for herd immunity.

Currently measles is officially “eliminated” in the US, but if outbreaks continue for more than a year we could lose that designation. Our prediction: Eventual lawsuits against anti-vax organizations.

^* Think that’s up north and Georgia is safe? Think again.

Munchies explained

It’s not news that marijuana can lead to the munchies. (Just ask the Girl Scouts selling cookies.) But until Washington State University researchers took it upon themselves to, you know, research the issue, we didn’t know why. Now we do.

After trying to get mice to smoke tiny joints, the neuroscientists settled for using vaporized cannabis, then scanned their brains. (The mice’s, not their own.) Cannabis, they found, activates certain neurons that are normally dormant.

[T]he cannabinoid-1 receptor, a known cannabis target, controlled the activity of a well-known set of “feeding” cells in the hypothalamus, called Agouti Related Protein neurons. […] When these neurons were turned off, cannabis no longer promoted appetite.

Quick! Justify this research!

It “could pave the way for refined therapeutics to treat appetite disorders faced by cancer patients as well as anorexia and potentially obesity.” But first, more research is needed….

^* Agouti Related Protein neurons, since you asked

The Long Read: How gut bacteria help with weight

A gastroenterologist at the University of Washington explains how the right foods (and the right gut biome) can let your body make its own GLP-1. Free Ozempic!