Protecting the pancreas (and stopping diabetes)

A new drug being developed seems to prevent and even reverse type 1 diabetes.

Created at Johns Hopkins, “mAb43” uses a different mechanism than other treatments; it works by creating a shield around the insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas, preventing the body’s immune system from attacking them. And when we say “shield,” that’s a literal shield. Check it out — mAb43 is in yellow:

Quoth the lead researcher:

“mAb43 in combination with insulin therapy may have the potential to gradually reduce insulin use while beta cells regenerate, ultimately eliminating the need to use insulin supplementation for glycemic control.”

The good news is that it worked in preliminary studies.

The bad news is that it’s only been tested in mice, using mouse-derived monoclonal antibodies. And if it works in humans it’ll be a long-term maintenance drug once it passes years of trials. Then it might be more convenient than insulin (the mice were given weekly shots), but you can bet the price tag won’t be small.

One week left…

… to register online for the 2024 Georgia Pharmacy Convention!

May 22 is the last day to pre-register online for the convention. After that registration will only be available on site, and the price will go up by $120. There’s a lot better stuff you can buy for $120^*!

Don’t miss out on the exciting events, more than 30 hours of CPE, the Saturday night President’s Bash, and of course all Amelia Island has to offer.

Register now, and we can’t wait to see you on Amelia Island June 13-16!

^* 2,000 glass marbles, for example

A little dab’ll do ya

An over-the-counter gel looks like it’ll be competing with Viagra in 2025. It’s called Eroxon (yes, seriously — it was originally “MED3000,” which sounds like something Wile E Coyote would use in “Looney Tunes After Dark”), and it works about 10 minutes after topical application … for at least 60% of men who tried it for erectile dysfunction.

It’s already got FDA approval because somehow it’s considered a device, and maker Futura says it’ll be on these shores next year. (It’s already for sale in the UK for $31 for four single-use tubes.)

The best part? It’s “slightly more effective if applied by a partner.” Indeed.

They doth protest too much

There are eight companies whose drugs are subject to Medicare price negotiations. All of them have claimed that cutting their profits will hurt their research and development efforts.

And yet another report proves that’s just not true. With one exception — Merck — they all spend more on either shareholder payments or admin and marketing than they do on research and development.

The folks at PhRMA, the industry’s lobbying group, did a nifty job of avoiding the question. Their statement simply answered a different question:

“The truth is the biopharmaceutical industry is one of the most research-intensive industries in America. Companies invested $122 billion in R&D in 2020, and we invest six times more on average in R&D as a share of sales than all other manufacturing industries.”

“Johnny, did you spend most of your allowance on junk food again?”

“The truth, Mom, is that I spend less on baseball cards than any other kid!”

Covid still lurks

There’s a new Covid-19 variant appearing in wastewater sampling, and to be sure to keep the naming conventions confusing, this one is called “FLiRT^*.”

It’s technically “KP.2,” and it’s related to the recent JN.1 variant but different enough to raise some scientific eyebrows, especially as it’s making up more than 35% of the strains currently active.

Should you worry? Probably not — we have a good track record of updating vaccines if necessary, and this doesn’t look any worse than what’s been out there.

^* Named for changes in some amino acids: F456L and R346T. Virologist humor is unique. 

Bird flu: What you need to know

If and when the H5N1 bird flu makes the jump from human to human, we’ll be a lot better off than when we were blindsided by the “mysterious Chinese illness” in 2019. If nothing else, we know how to make flu shots, even if it can take several months to grow a batch.

Then again, dealing with H5N1 isn’t quite as simple as cranking out the annual flu vaccines — this strain is a bit different. Read the details in one of the better “preparing for the bird flu” articles, from the Guardian.

The silly reason we don’t get the good sunscreen

Here’s an oversimplification of a story: There are better sunscreens available than what you sell — ones that block a lot more UVA (which causes cancer, as opposed to UVB, which causes sunburn). People in Europe use ’em all the time.

Why aren’t they available here? Because, in part, the FDA requires them to be tested on animals, while in Europe animal testing is banned. The result is that cosmetics companies don’t want to ruin their reputations overseas by doing animal testing here, so the US gets the second-rate sunscreen.

There’s also the issue of social media infomercials “influencers” convincing people that sunscreens in general are bad. (The exceptions are those using zinc-oxide because, they say, zinc oxide isn’t a chemical, it’s a physical barrier. News flash: Zinc-oxide is a chemical).