Pharmacists News

• Boosters Reduce COVID Deaths in Patients With Multimorbidity Additional studies are needed for accurate booster-dose timing as new variants emerge, according to researchers.
  Medscape Medical News, February 03, 2023
• More Data Back Guillain-Barré Risk With Janssen COVID Shot Observed cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome after receipt of the Janssen shot were two to three times greater than background rates within 3-6 weeks of vaccination, new US surveillance data show.
  Medscape Medical News, February 03, 2023
• Herbal Combination Tames Active Ulcerative Colitis: Study Derivatives of an intensely yellow spice and an intensely blue dye combined to resolve active ulcerative colitis in a small, randomized trial.
  MDedge News, February 02, 2023
• Positive Test No Longer Required to Get COVID Antivirals The FDA announced the changes Wednesday in letters sent to the drugs' manufacturers, Pfizer and Merck.
  WebMD Health News, February 02, 2023
• Massive Rise in Drug Overdose Deaths Driven by Opioids The drug overdose death rate in the United States climbed nearly 400% from 2001 to 2021, with much of the increase occurring in the last 2 years, the National Center for Heath Statistics reports.
  MDedge News, February 02, 2023
• Insurance Giant's Effort to Deny Coverage to Chronically Ill Patient After a college student finally found a treatment that worked, the insurance giant wouldn't pay for the costly drugs. His fight to get coverage exposed the insurer's hidden procedures for rejecting claims.
  ProPublica, February 02, 2023
• Antidepressants Mostly Ineffective, 'Lackluster' for Chronic Pain In a new analysis of 26 systematic reviews, most comparisons had inconclusive evidence of the effectiveness of antidepressants compared with placebo in treating pain.
  Medscape Medical News, February 02, 2023
• Mailing Abortion Pills Could Break Law, Republican AGs Tell Pharmacies A group of 20 Republican state attorneys general on Wednesday told Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp that they risk running afoul of federal and state law if they dispense the abortion drug mifepristone by mail.
  Reuters Health Information, February 02, 2023
• UK Pharma Body Urges Govt to Scrap Hike in Repayment Rate for Drugmakers UK's pharmaceutical trade body on Thursday called for the government to scrap its plans to raise the repayment rates for drugmakers, to avoid possible setbacks in the sector.
  Reuters Health Information, February 02, 2023
• Alert FDA Approves Daprodustat, First Oral Anemia Treatment The US Food and Drug Administration has approved daprodustat as oral treatment for anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease and on dialysis, but not for patients who are not on dialysis.
  Medscape Medical News, February 02, 2023
• Even Low-Level Air Pollution Ups Depression, Anxiety Risk Long-term exposure to multiple air pollutants, even at levels below national air quality standards, is associated with increased risk for depression and anxiety, new research suggests.
  Medscape Medical News, February 01, 2023
• Acute Hepatic Porphyrias Not as Rare as Previously Thought Recent treatment advances have improved the outlook for patients with acute hepatic porphyrias.
  MDedge News, February 01, 2023
• Bacterial Outbreak Linked to EzriCare Eyedrops: CDC A bacterial outbreak linked to eyedrops has caused one death and sickened at least 50 people in 11 states, the CDC says.
  WebMD Health News, February 01, 2023
• Vitamin D Supplementation Linked to Fewer Suicide Attempts A large retrospective study of US veterans finds those receiving vitamin D2 or D3 had fewer suicide attempts or episodes of intentional self-harm than matched peers who didn't take the vitamin.
  Medscape Medical News, February 01, 2023
• Does Immunotherapy Offer Survival Gain in Older NSCLC Patients? Contrary to clinical trial results, the survival benefit of checkpoint inhibitors in the real-world setting is lower among older people with NSCLC, who make up a large proportion of patients.
  Medscape Medical News, February 01, 2023
• Pfizer Sees Steep 2023 Fall in COVID Sales, Aims to Bolster Pipeline Pfizer on Tuesday forecast a bigger-than-expected drop in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment for 2023, intensifying investor concerns over demand for the products as governments cut orders and work through inventories.
  Reuters Health Information, February 01, 2023
• Elevated PCSK9-Psoriasis Link: A New Target for Treatment? The study suggests that "PCSK9 inhibition is causally associated with reduced risk of psoriasis" and has implications for prevention and possibly treatment of psoriasis, the investigators say.
  MDedge News, February 01, 2023
• Frequent Visits to Green Spaces Linked to Lower Use of Some Meds In a study of Finnish city dwellers, those who often visited green spaces, such as parks and community gardens, used fewer psychotropic, antihypertensive, and asthma meds than those who did not.
  Medscape Medical News, February 01, 2023
• Black Patients Less Likely to Receive Opioids for Advanced Cancer Older Black patients with advanced cancer are less likely than White patients to receive opioids for pain relief yet are more likely to receive drug screenings in the last weeks of life.
  Medscape Medical News, February 01, 2023
• FDA Announces Shakeup After Infant Formula Crisis The FDA said on Tuesday it will restructure its food program that was slammed last year for responding too slowly to an outbreak of illness among infants who consumed formula from an Abbott Laboratories production plant.
  Reuters Health Information, January 31, 2023