A better way to deliver heparin

Heparin is great as a blood thinner — if you can get the dosing right. Instead of an IV that delivers the drug to the entire bloodstream (where it’s quickly cleared out), why not deliver it right to a blood clot?

How can you do that? Penn State researchers found a way. If you’re thinking, “They used a nanogranular paste, didn’t they?” you’re spot on.

Injected under the skin, their material consists of heparin and a bit of peptide. When it gets to the turbulent site of a blood clot, that turbulence breaks it apart and releases the heparin right where it’s needed. (You are permitted to say, “Whoa” at this point^*. Biomed engineers are amazing folks.)

“The peptide also has some anticoagulating properties on its own: It binds to platelets in the blood, enabling action at the clotting site [… it] increases heparin’s effects by more than ten times longer than what is currently being used.”

^* “Woah” is also acceptable.

Emergency?

USA: We’re extending the Covid-19 emergency another 90 days.

WHO: We’re thinking of lifting the global public emergency; we’ll decide later this month.

China: We’re opening our borders! Also, no one here is dying from Covid! And happy New Year — go visit friends and family!

Rest of the world: [sighs deeply]

How you can help with opioid abuse

You know which healthcare providers can help people with opioid use disorder? You guessed it: pharmacists. A study out of Rhode Island found that…

[P]atients who started taking buprenorphine after visiting a specially trained pharmacist for their care […] showed dramatically higher rates of retention: 25 patients (89%) continued to receive treatment in the pharmacy compared to five (17%) in the usual care group.

It’s about reaching people — some of whom can’t see a physician — and increasing the capacity of the healthcare system to treat people and get them back to being more productive members of the community.

Pharmacists are in the perfect position to do that … if they’re allowed. Only 10 states (Georgia isn’t one) allow them to prescribe buprenorphine.

Carter asks FDA to reinstate dispensing reg

If you promise to stay calm, you can read this story involving mifepristone.

Georgia’s own Buddy Carter (leading 24 other members) has sent a letter to the FDA arguing that pharmacists should not be allowed to dispense mifepristone and asking the agency to revoke that permission. (Click here to read the letter.)

Saying it will “fundamentally harm the pharmacist-patient relationship,” they want the agency to reinstate the original regulation requiring the drug to be either dispensed by physicians directly or through approved mail-order pharmacies. That rule was changed at the beginning of January.

“As a pharmacist, I would never prescribe a drug that endangers the life of a mother or her unborn child. This is dangerous, irresponsible, and must be addressed.”

Drug-price negotiations: See you next year

HHS has announced that it now has a timeline for the process of negotiating drug prices for a whopping 10 high-priced drugs, (as it is now allowed to do).

What drugs? What prices? Don’t hold your breath — that list of drugs won’t be announced until September, and pricing discussions won’t begin until February 2024. The amount the government is willing to pay will be announced nine months later, in September 2024.

Good news about long Covid

An Israeli study (of ~2 million people) found that if you have a mild infection, chances are your symptoms will be gone within a year.

Here’s the most “glass half full” paragraph you’ll read today:

[P]atients with mild Covid-19 had an increased risk of problems including loss of smell and taste, concentration and memory impairment, breathing difficulties, weakness, palpitations, strep throat, and dizziness. Later in the year, health records showed more hair loss (particularly among women), chest pain, cough, muscle aches and pains, and respiratory disorders among Covid patients. But for most people, these problems also cleared up by the end of one year.

Yay? Yay!

USA! USA!

Vaccine acceptance in the US has increased to the point that we’re now up there with the rest of the Western world.

Globally, the average vaccine hesitancy has dropped in each survey edition and is now just over 20 percent. That’s right about where the US now finds itself, with just under 20 percent indicating they have not received a first shot.

Captain Obvious was about to say something…

“Colour-coded syringe trays may help cut medication errors” finds a British study. It’s a real problem, too: “Data suggests that drug-related errors — such as accidental syringe swaps — occur in 1 in 133 anaesthetic administrations.”

Looking at search time and the number of errors (using eye-tracking technology — cool!) they found that “the trays helped make it quicker for users to make the correct choice first time.”

…but then this caught her eye

Eating right means living longer. I.e., “Adherence to Healthy Eating Patterns Linked to Lower Mortality Risk”.