Look who’s back

Great news: Mounjaro and Zepbound are now officially officially out of shortage, as the FDA has confirmed — based on data from Eli Lilly — that there’s plenty to go around.

And what of all the evidence that tirzepatide isn’t available? Well, that only comes from pharmacists and patients, and Lilly promises that’s not true. Wrote the FDA:

We conclude that this information does not undermine or outweigh the evidence demonstrating that Lilly’s supply is currently meeting or exceeding demand and that, based on our best judgment, it will meet or exceed projected demand.

Compounding pharmacies will have 60 days to stop dispensing tirzepatide injections, and outsourcing facilities (i.e., 503Bs) will have 90 days to stop.

Tell your patients: You’ve got Mounjaro and Zepbound back in stock!

CVS unlawfully filled opioid scripts says DoJ

The agency filed a civil complaint against the pharma giant, alleging CVS “Knowingly Dispensed Controlled Substances in Violation of the Controlled Substances Act and the False Claims Act.”

What’s it claiming the pharmacy giant did? In no particular order:

  • Filled prescriptions for excessive and dangerous quantities of opioids including combos of opioids, benzos, and muscle relaxants
  • Filled prescriptions from pill mills (which should have been obvious)
  • Prevented its pharmacists from warning one another about those pill mills
  • Billed federal health programs for the meds

The complaint alleges that CVS’s violations resulted from corporate-mandated performance metrics, incentive compensation, and staffing policies that prioritized corporate profits over patient safety. CVS set staffing levels far too low for pharmacists to both meet their performance metrics and comply with their legal obligations.

The above link goes to the DoJ press release; click here for a news article if you prefer.

Attention PharmDawgs!

Know a PharmDawg who has “advanced conversations around inclusive excellence”? Then there’s good news for you (and for them): Nominations are being accepted for the 2025 William T. Robie III Inclusive Excellence Award, which is given to just such a person.

The award was established to honor the college’s first African American student and graduate, William Robie of the class of 1970. So nominate a deserving PharmDawg today! The award will be presented at the 2025 William T. Robie III Inclusive Excellence Lecture on Thurs., Feb. 6, at 12:30 pm.

Today, moderate drinking is…

Once again we flip the Coin of Knowledge™ to see whether moderate drinking is better than not drinking at all. And this time the answer is … yes, it’s better! At least according to a review by the folks at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

Drinking a little, NASEM says, “was associated with a lower risk of nonfatal heart attacks and strokes, as well as a lower overall risk of death.” And although it ups your odds for breast and colorectal cancer, “no broader conclusion could be made for most other cancers.”

We’ll see you at the next coin flip.

Congrats…

… to Dr. Mandy Reece, who’s been upgraded from interim dean to really-and-for-true dean of the School of Pharmacy at PCOM Georgia. (She got her PharmD at Mercer, by the way.)

High-five*, Doc!

* Followed by some hand sanitizer — no offense, but it is flu season

Another GLP-1 benefit: doctors visits

As more people are taking GLP-1 agonists to lose weight, it also means they’re going to their GPs more — and identifying other conditions they have. That’s leading to their getting the care they need for issues from sleep apnea to osteoarthritis.

Health-data firm Truveta found, looking at medical records, that “first-time diagnoses of sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes” have all increased within a couple of weeks of starting on a GLP-1 drug. Even CPAP maker ResMed has seen its revenue jump 11% in its latest fiscal year, which it attributes to GLP-1 drugs.

In addition to obesity-related conditions, some patients are being prescribed the drugs to lose weight and become eligible for services, including organ transplants, fertility treatments, or knee replacements, according to interviews with seven doctors and five other health experts.

While this might result in higher costs in the short term, hopefully the long-term benefits will be significantly greater … provided, of course, patients can stay on the drugs.

Elsewhere: Going all in

Louisiana, which already has one of the worst healthcare systems in the country, and where people are among the least healthy, is now forbidding state health workers from promoting flu, Covid, or mpox vaccines.

Staffers were also told that it applies to every aspect of the health department’s work: Employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines.

The Long Read: Fool Me Twice edition

You would think we’d have learned from Covid-19, but nope. All the warning signs are there, and there early, but read “How America Lost Control of the Bird Flu.”