In case you’re somehow unaware….

UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare division has been hit by a cyberattack from a “suspected nation-state associated cybersecurity threat actor” — e.g., Russia, China, or North Korea … not that we’d point fingers.

The cyberattack has thrown a wrench into the healthcare system’s operations, leaving many pharmacies unable to verify patient insurance coverage or determine copayment amounts.

And then comes the understatement of the day: “This inability to process prescriptions has caused considerable distress among pharmacists and patients alike” because pharmacies can’t verify insurance coverage or copays and thus some patients can’t get their meds.

Check out the story from Fox 5 Atlanta, featuring GPhA’s own Jonathan Marquess, VP of the Academy of Independent Pharmacy, or read the Reuters story for a bit more detail.

The X-for-Y Files: Propecia edition

Check it out, guys: The same drug that fights male-pattern baldness and enlarged prostate (finasteride, known as Propecia on the streets) also seems to reduce cholesterol, delay atherosclerosis, and lower liver inflammation.

Well, definitely in mice and probably in humans.

University of Illinois researchers noticed that men taking finasteride had cholesterol levels — 30 points lower than men not taking it. That was based on a survey, though, not a study. So off to the lab, where they tested the drug on mice. And it worked.

“Mice that were given a high dose of finasteride showed lower cholesterol levels within the plasma as well as in the arteries. There were also fewer lipids and inflammatory markers in the liver.”

Next up is a more thorough trial to prove the same effect on humans, but hopefully at a lower dose.

GLP-1 drugs are so effective…

How effective are they? So effective that Goldman Sachs thinks they’ll make workers much more efficient — enough to potentially boost the country’s GDP by a full 1% in the next few years. (“Academic studies find that obese individuals are both less likely to work and less productive when they do.”)

Elsewhere

Rocky Mountain High Prices edition

For the first time ever, a state — Colorado — has determined that a drug is officially unaffordable for patients. The drug is Enbrel, an injection that treats autoimmune diseases.

The state’s All-Payer Claims Database found Enbrel cost more than $46,000 a year per patient, with patients responsible for an average of $2,295 in 2022 if they were covered by commercial insurance or Medicare Advantage. The database found at least 3,400 people in the state used Enbrel that year.

That leaves it open for the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board to set a maximum price for Enbrel in Colorado, “which would be the first time any state took that step with any prescription drug” and will of course lead to months or years of court battles.

California tackles pharmacist overload

The Golden State has passed a new law “aiming to address understaffed chain pharmacies and reduce medication errors” by giving pharmacists an extra bit of clout.

The gist of the Stop Dangerous Pharmacies Act is making pharmacists in charge actually in charge. It starts by giving them the right to make staffing decisions “to ensure that the right personnel or at least enough personnel are present in the store.”

And if there aren’t enough staff (or there’s another dangerous situation)? The PiC is required to notify management, and management is required “to take immediate and reasonable steps to address these issues and resolve these conditions” within 24 hours. If that doesn’t happen, there’s a centralized reporting system for pharmacists to notify the state board.

There’s more to it, including reporting requirements for medication errors — hit the link above to read the Pharmacy Times article for the deets.

FDA: If it don’t prick, the results don’t stick

Smart watches or rings or bracelets or any other doodad that says it can monitor your glucose without a needle? No way, says the FDA — it hasn’t evaluated, let alone approved, any such device; patients can’t trust the readings.

Such devices are manufactured by dozens of companies and sold under multiple brand names. Their makers often claim the gadgets can measure blood glucose levels without requiring users to prick their skin.

The danger, of course, is that a patient would use a device like that to manage diabetes, and who know what would happen?

Long-Covid breakthroughs

Irish researchers have found what they think is the cause of long Covid’s brain fog: leaky blood vessels in the brain.

Using a new type of MRI scan, they discovered “that there was disruption to the integrity of the blood vessels in the brains of patients suffering from Long COVID and brain fog.”

Meanwhile, British researchers have found what they think is the cause of long Covid: a protein called interferon gamma (IFN-γ), that appears during an immune reaction. It usually disappears once the infection clears, “but the researchers found that high levels of IFN-γ persisted in some long Covid patients for up to 31 months.”

“Interferon gamma can be used to treat viral infections such as hepatitis C but it causes symptoms including fatigue, fever, headache, aching muscles and depression. These symptoms are all too familiar to long Covid patients. For us, that was another smoking gun.”

They aren’t sure if IFN-γ levels are the direct cause of the symptoms or a biomarker of some other process. Regardless, it’s something clear that can be tested for.

The Long Read: Empty Adderall Factory edition

Ascent Pharmaceuticals in New York makes generic Adderall, Concerta, and opioids. But the DEA, to show it was doing something about the opioid epidemic, shut the factory down because of “discrepancies” in record-keeping. Like what?

For example, orders struck from 222s [forms] must be crossed out with a line and the word cancel written next to them. Investigators found two instances in which Ascent employees had drawn the line but failed to write the word.

Horrors! Despite not a single pill going missing, the DEA shut down the plant, refusing to distinguish the ADHD-med production from opioid production. Now the company is suing, while other federal agencies are pressuring it to help ease the Adderall shortage … which it can’t.