Smallpox vaccine doesn’t prevent monkeypox: study

If you got a smallpox vaccine back in the day — as most people born before 1974 did — will that protect you against monkeypox?

Here’s the gist of a study out of the Netherlands:

• If you had that vaccinia virus vaccine in the ’60s or ’70s, you almost certainly have antibodies against monkeypox. Yay.
• If you got monkeypox even with that older smallpox vaccination, you got an antibody boost (as you might expect). Yay, again.
• But if you got the new smallpox vaccine (known as the modified vaccinia Ankara or MVA vaccine, such as MVA-BN from Bavarian Nordic) … bad news. It doesn’t work.
• If you had ye olde smallpox vaccine and the newer MVA-BN shot … that MVA-BN shot doesn’t even act as much of a booster.

[T]he findings of the study question the efficacy of the MVA-BN vaccine in protecting against monkeypox.

But …

The researchers believe that a third dose of the MVA-BN vaccine will improve immunity.

Covid’s worse if you have gout

People with gout — especially women — are at higher risk of not only catching Covid-19, but of having a severe case. And that’s true even if they’ve been vaccinated. So found a joint Chinese-Harvard study that analyzed health records of about 3 million individuals in the UK.

Help fight the threat to compounding

Whether you do simple compounding or are part of a full-fledged facility, that entire side of the pharmacy profession is under threat.

From the possibility that the FDA might curtail (or even ban) compounded hormone therapy, to potential restrictions on veterinary compounding (and more), Congress needs to know the dangers facing patients.

This Thursday, September 15, take a minute to contact your member of Congress, and to spread the word on social media: Compounding pharmacies are important for Americans’ health!

Get talking points, graphics, and more from our friends at the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding.

Surprise drug treats autism’s social side

Back in 2020, we told you how an anti- diarrheal drug, loperamide, might fight cancer. Apparently it’s got more tricks up its sleeve. Loperamide, it seems, might help autistic people improve their social-interaction skills.

Norwegian researchers, with help from some of those shifty Danes, used computer modeling to guess which existing drugs might be repurposed; they looked at protein structures and other stuff that only computers are really good at.

When it reached loperamide, the computer (based on the movies I’ve seen) flashed a green light and the words “MATCH FOUND” while dramatic music played.

The scientists found that loperamide binds to and activates a protein called the μ-opioid receptor. And the μ-opioid receptor, it seems, affects social behavior.

In previous studies, genetically engineered mice that lack the μ-opioid receptor demonstrated social deficits similar to those seen in ASD. Interestingly, drugs that activate the μ-opioid receptor helped to restore social behaviors.

This doesn’t make loperamide a treatment for autism spectrum disorder … yet. But it does open “a new way to treat the social symptoms present in ASD.”

FTC chair to speak at NCPA convention

Thinking about attending the NCPA convention in KCMO this October 1–4? Here’s another cool reason: FTC Chair Lina Khan will be speaking at the October 3 general session.

It’s the FTC, you might remember, that could put a halt to pharmacy-biz mega-mergers — aka “consolidation and vertical integration of health insurance plans and pharmacy benefit managers,” and Khan has already been more than receptive to independent pharmacists’ concerns.

Besides a fireside chat with NCPA CEO Doug Hoey (sans fire for safety reasons), Khan will take questions from the audience. So if you’ve got questions, you’ll want to be in that audience. Click here for more convention info.

ICYMI

Using a mechanism scientists only recently discovered, it seems that “small pollutant particles in the air may trigger lung cancer in people who have never smoked.”

The bad news, obviously, is that air pollution can cause lung cancer.

But the good news is that discovering this mechanism is “paving the way to new prevention approaches and development of therapies.”

Help your senior patients find help

If you have older patients who you know are having trouble paying bills, there’s a decent chance they aren’t taking advantage of all the benefits available.

From SNAP assistance to Medicare savings programs and subsidies (and even legal assistance), there’s a lot out there. One starting point is a local Area Agency on Aging — they can find the one near them with the Eldercare Locator.

The other place to start is the National Council on Aging’s BenefitsCheckUp, which helps older adults find and apply for benefits. It’s at benefitscheckup.org or (800) 794-6559.

Captain Obvious will call Santa if you don’t behave

“Studies show children don’t believe everything they are told”

The Long Read: Boost or Not? edition

Hurry, hurry, hurry — get your Omicron booster before the fall Covid surge!

Or … maybe not? “Did the US Jump the Gun With the New Omicron-Targeted Vaccines?”

[A]s society moves into the next phase of the pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry may be moving into more familiar territory: developing products that may be a smidgen better than what came before, selling — sometimes overselling — their increased effectiveness in the absence of adequate controlled studies or published data.