Medicare to cover Wegovy

It’s the first GLP-1 weight-loss drug the program will cover, because it’s not technically a weight-loss drug — it’s only been approved for treating heart problems by CMS following the FDA’s approval of the drug for that purpose. So don’t be surprised to see some wink-wink from prescribers on this one.

Short takes

Sure, why not?

Apparently being double-joined increases your risk of long Covid.

Who woulda thunk?

What do you call a woman who gets her birth control information from TikTok?

“Mom.”

Another inhaler price drop

Following in the footsteps of Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca, now GSK says it will cap the prices of its inhalers at $35 out of pocket … well, starting in 9 months.

Drug-delivery contact lens

If someone’s got a corneal abrasion, why give them eye drops they must put in manually when you can have ’em pop in a contact lens that delivers antibiotics automatically* — while also acting as a bandage?

That’s just what Canadian scientists developed because (unlike you and me) the lead researcher “knew there was a market for a drug-delivering bandage contact lens that could simultaneously treat the eye and allow it to heal.”

If delivering drugs via contact lenses isn’t cool enough, here’s a twist: It reacts to an enzyme in the eye^* that’s released during wound healing. Thus the lens…

“… releases the drug in a way that is proportional to the amount of enzymes present at the wound. So, the bigger the wound, the higher the amount of drug released.”

And yes, someone did call it “potentially a game changer.”

^* Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), as you probably guessed

The acid that makes you fat, frail, and sick

Usually you hear about amino acids having a positive effect on health — precursors to proteins and all that. But University of Wisconsin researchers found the opposite: Mice that cut down on their intake of isoleucine lived longer, got thinner, were less frail as they aged, and didn’t have as much cancer or as many prostate problems — even when their calorie intake was higher. The UW folks also found that obese people had more isoleucine in their bodies, confirming their suspicions.

So what foods contain isoleucine? Yeah, that’s the problem: “Isoleucine is plentiful in foods including eggs, dairy, soy protein, and many kinds of meat.”

Rather than count on people changing their diets, the scientists hope to figure out the mechanism at work and use it as a treatment target (or possibly find a way to block isoleucine absorption).

How you doin’?

APhA and the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations released their 2003 “Pharmacy Workplace and Well-being Reporting,” highlighting what pharmacy staff report are the biggest issues in their pharmacies.

You can read the full report here (PDF), or just check out the news release here. Or you can cut to the chase and ponder the 10 most-reported issues:

1. Staffing/scheduling (491 reports)
2. Volume/workload expectation mismatched to available staffing and shift hours (485)
3. Working conditions (420)
4. Pharmacy metrics (399)
5. Training or education (165)
6. Medication error — near miss with no patient harm (142)
7. Professional judgment restricted or supported when caring for a patient (139)
8. Personal safety concerns (123)
9. Technology/automation (80)
10. Insurance or billing issues (80)

Fighting fungus with fungus

The Candida albicans fungus can be a big problem in hospitals. Usually it’s benign, sometimes it causes thrush, but too often it can lead to invasive candidiasis, where it infects the blood or the organs. If that happens, there’s a 25% mortality rate.

There aren’t any great treatments for candidiasis, and killing C. albicans is tough — although that may have changed. Rather than a drug, Israeli researchers have found another fungus that outcompetes C. albicans, clearing it out of the intestines and reducing the risk of runaway infection.

They named the new fungus Kazachstania weizmannii, and they found it living happily in human guts. In fact, where there is K. weizmannii you don’t find C. albicans, and vice-versa, meaning it sure looks like it could be weaponized.

Never too early

There are only 276 days till Christmas, so the folks at Drug Store News are wondering, “What will consumers’ shopping behavior look like for the 2024 holidays?”

The answer: deals, discounts, and online shopping with free shipping and customer reviews. But don’t you worry — “[N]early 60% of all U.S. and U.K. respondents plan to attend Black Friday and Cyber Monday^* physical events during the holiday 2024 season.”

^* Sure, shopping in person for Cyber Monday. That makes sense.