Georgia pharmacist to DEA: Come get me, bro

The owner of Living Well Pharmacy in Augusta, Vic Johnson, is dispensing medical marijuana to Georgians who have a medical marijuana card … even though the DEA says that’s illegal.

Quick background: Georgia passed a law allowing certain independent pharmacies to dispense low-THC products to patients who have been approved to receive a medical marijuana card. That’s about 22,463 people so far.

But before the program could take off, the DEA stepped in and said pharmacies couldn’t dispense it, stopping the program in its tracks.

Now here comes Johnson willing to defy the feds.

Johnson said he is prepared to take drastic measures to keep selling medical marijuana products if the DEA takes steps to force him to stop.

“It’s a new frontier. I really think pharmacies are an ideal outlet for dispensing medical cannabis because if you come to my pharmacy already, we can talk about what medications you already are taking,” said Johnson.

FTC fires back

Tuesday: We wrote that PBMs were demanding that the FTC retract its conclusion that PBMs help increase the price of drugs.

Now: The FTC filed suit against Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum “for Artificially Inflating Insulin Drug Prices.” The agency found that PBMs “chase the rebates” and thus steer patients to more expensive medications, making insulin unaffordable to millions of Americans.

The FTC alleges that the three PBMs created a perverse drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drug manufacturers, leading to artificially inflated insulin list prices.

The complaint charges that even when lower list price insulins became available that could have been more affordable for vulnerable patients, the PBMs systemically excluded them in favor of high list price, highly rebated insulin products.

(The FTC also puts blame on drug makers for “driving up list prices of life-saving medications” and might sue them later.)

Triptans beat newer migraine drugs

As good as new migraine drugs like lasmiditan (Reyvow), rimegepant (Nurtec), and ubrogepant (Ubrelvy) are, it seems that older, less expensive drugs are actually better.

A British review/analysis with 90,000 participants (!) found that certain triptans — but not all — were actually the best drugs for acute migraine. According to the lead researcher:

“Our analysis identified eletriptan, rizatriptan, sumatriptan, and zolmitriptan as the most effective medications for treating acute migraine attacks.”

Meanwhile, the newer drugs were “comparable to paracetamol [acetaminophen] and less than the aforementioned four triptans.”

Ozempic up for negotiation?

Novo Nordisk says it expects Ozempic to be part of the next round of Medicare price negotiations. Considering the high price the company set (and the frightening effect on Medicare’s wallet), the good it can do for people’s health, and the high demand, that’s not surprising.

No, it’s not good for you

Even moderate alcohol

More and more the idea that moderate drinking is good for you is falling by the wayside. Yeah, it might reduce some cardiovascular issues, but — as a new report from the American Association for Cancer Research explains — the recent rise in certain cancers might be attributed to alcohol use.

In fact, there have been several studies lately that have solidified the link between alcohol and cancer while finding the cardiovascular effects are minimal.

As one epidemiologist put it, when it comes to moderate drinking, “[T]here are many ways to keep your heart healthy, and these potential benefits don’t really outweigh your cancer risks.”

Fruit and oats

Don’t give your kid(s) oatmeal or fruit for breakfast — you’re raising their risk of type 1 diabetes. A new Finnish study followed 5,700 children who had a genetic predisposition to type 1 diabetes and had their parents track their diets.

When they parsed the data, they found that “the more fruit, oats or rye children ate, the more their risk of T1D increased.”

But there’s good news:

In contrast, eating strawberries, blueberries, lingonberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, and other berries appeared to provide protection against T1D. The more berries a child ate, the less likely they were to develop T1D.

Commercial premiums are going up … again

Employers are going to see the cost of employees’ health plans jump an average of 5.8% in 2025 according to a projection from Mercer (the company, not the university).

• That would be the third year in a row of costs rising more than 5%
• It would be about 7% without employers’ cost-savings measures, like switching to higher-deductible plans or raising employee contributions.
• It’ll be worse for smaller businesses — 9% before any cost cutting.

Why the jump? Prescription drug costs, of course. And what’s leading the pack? GLP-1 agonists.

Correlation vs causation

Apparently there’s a link between slap fighting and brain trauma. (Captain Obvious wonders, though, which way it goes.)

Elsewhere: Sunshine State confusion

Trigger warning: This is a story about abortion. Remain calm.

Florida has effectively outlawed abortion, banning it after 6 weeks. Okey doke^*. There are exceptions “to save the life and health of the mother” and “when the pregnancy results from rape, incest, or human trafficking, or has a fatal fetal abnormality.”

But now the state’s health department has sent a memo to doctors saying that failure to provide an abortion in those circumstances is illegal and can result in malpractice charges.

^* That doesn’t mean we support or oppose it, just that it’s the law — let’s go on with the rest of the story.