Big Pfizer factor destroyed

Extreme weather courtesy of climate change just clobbered pharmacy in a big way, with a Pfizer manufacturing plant in North Carolina being damaged by an EF3 tornado. And not just any plant. This one makes — er, made — “nearly 25% of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals.”

Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said the damage “will likely lead to long-term shortages while Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuilds.”

This is what they mean by “damaged”:

If you thought there were drug shortage problems already, it’s about to get a lot worse. That part about Pfizer moving production? That could well mean that an existing plant is repurposed to provide more essential meds, meaning someone’s gonna have to decide what’s more important to produce.

Sidebar: Capitalism does a heck of a lot right, but it’s not perfect — something we’re seeing now as drug shortages continue to hit. So a health economist at USC explains “Why hundreds of decades-old yet vital drugs are nearly impossible to find.”

AIP members: Learn how to help diabetes patients help themselves

Are you interested in providing Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) in your community? If so, please join us on Tuesday, July 25 at 6:30 pm for a free informational webinar. Find out the benefits of DSMES and how easy it is to get started.

GPhA/AIP is working with the Georgia Department of Public Health to assist 10 pharmacies with DSMES accreditation.

DSMES is a program that helps patients with diabetes learn skills to take charge of their condition through healthy eating and lifestyle changes. Receiving diabetes education and support makes them better equipped to do that.

Unfortunately, participation is low. According to the CDC, fewer than 5% of Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes receive DSMES services. That means 95% are not getting the education and support they need. Even worse, 62% of rural counties don’t offer DSMES services.

That’s why Georgia needs you. Pharmacists are perfectly positioned to provide these services. You are accessible, knowledgeable, and trusted by your patients which means you can change behaviors resulting in better outcomes for your patients.

Step up to help your community, your patients, your practice, and your résumé.. Learn how to get started with DSMES.

Click here to register and get started!

Speaking of diabetes

If you have a hairless diabetic mouse, there’s a neat new invention in the works. It’s a “thin, invisible, and biodegradable patch” that changes color (well, under bright light) depending on blood glucose levels. The idea would be that the mouse — or a human user — would shine a smartphone flashlight onto the patch and an app would measure the light it emitted.

While that might seem a little clunky, keep in mind that this is still in development. How long do you think before someone comes up with a sensor that can read the patch directly?

What, you want something with more big science words? No problemo:

To measure glucose, the team chose a glucose fluorescent (GF) monomer composed of two parts. The first is a di-boronic acid, which binds to glucose in the interstitial fluid just underneath the skin. The other is a hydrophobic fluorescent molecule, which changes shape and emits fluorescence when glucose binds to the acid. When glucose binds to the GF monomer, the monomer absorbs blue light and emits red light.

TikTok bans semaglutide talk

The social media platform banned a whole bunch of accounts that were promoting weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and its kin. The logic: The platform’s terms of service bans “showing or promoting disordered eating or any dangerous weight loss behaviors,” which may include “compulsive exercise, and using potentially harmful medication or supplements.” It even prohibits ads for weight loss drugs.

Meanwhile, you can still try out various TikTok challenges, including ones that have you black yourself out with a scarf, shock yourself with an electric outlet, see how much Benadryl you can take, and snort condoms. Really.

A fluoride alternative

Using fluoride is the best way to prevent cavities, but there may be an alternative: hydroxyapatite, a mineral that’s already used in sensitive-teeth products but that’s never been tested on regular folks.

Until, that is, Polish researchers got involved. They conducted an 18-month study and found that “the patients using hydroxyapatite toothpaste were no more likely to develop cavities than the patients using fluoride.”

Why do we need an alternative? Mostly because little kids can swallow too much and get sick, so they tend to use less toothpaste and thus have less cavity protection.

Podcast of the week: The science podcast “Science Vs” did an episode on what really works to keep cavities away. Turns out the answer is fluoride, not even brushing —just getting fluoride onto your teeth by whatever means floats your boat prevents cavities. (But brushing and flossing are good for your gums.) Check it out here.

Espresso vs Alzheimer’s

If you’ve got a Petri dish full of tau protein tangles — you know, the stuff that starts a brain down the road to Alzheimer’s — here’s a neat trick: Italian researchers found that espresso (yes, espresso)…

…prevented tau protein clumps known as fibrils from forming long strands. This, in turn, prevented them from weaving themselves into the larger sheets that disrupt brain function.

It’s not just caffeine, although that helps. And it’s not just the caffeine and genistein (another compound in espresso). It’s the whole thing — “the full espresso extract had the biggest impact on tau.”

But you can’t just drink espresso and expec— wait, what?

Because many of the compounds in coffee can cross the blood-brain barrier, the researchers believe that simply drinking espresso might convey some of the same benefits seen in the study.