Pharmacists News

• AAAAI 2021 Peanut Sublingual Immunotherapy Feasible and Effective in Toddlers Even in peanut-allergic toddlers as young as age 1 year, peanut sublingual immunotherapy is effective, a new study suggests.
  Medscape Medical News, February 28, 2021
• Alert FDA Grants Emergency Use to Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine The Janssen/Johnson & Johnson SARS-CoV-2 vaccine becomes the third available to fight the pandemic in the US and the first designed for single-dose administration.
  FDA Approvals, February 27, 2021
• COVID-19 Vaccination Linked to Less Mechanical Ventilation A new report from Israel links COVID-19 vaccination to a drop in the need for mechanical ventilation among people 70 and older.
  Medscape Medical News, February 26, 2021
• Ireland Sees Strong Early Evidence That Vaccines Are Working Ireland is beginning to see strong early evidence that its COVID-19 vaccine rollout is protecting healthcare workers and care home residents from catching the disease, health officials said.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Contrary to Popular Belief, Insulin Can Be Stored Outside Fridge In a study, insulin retained its potency in conditions in which the temperature oscillated between 25 and 37 degrees Celsius (77 to 98.6 Fahrenheit) during a 28-day period of use.
  Medscape Medical News, February 26, 2021
• EU Regulator Plans to Fast Track Variant-Modified COVID Vaccines Europe's medicines regulator said it has issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their COVID-19 vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Regeneron to Stop Placebo in COVID Trial After 'Clear Efficacy' Regeneron said that an independent panel found the company's COVID-19 antibody cocktail to have 'clear clinical efficacy' in reducing the rates of hospitalization and deaths in patients.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• No Survival Benefit to Primary Resection Before Chemo in CRC Contrary to previous reports, primary tumor resection prior to chemotherapy did not confer a survival benefit in colorectal cancer patients in a randomized phase 3 study in Japan.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Murthy for SG, Levine for HHS Get Mostly Positive Senate Reception In committee hearing, the surgeon general and assistant health secretary nominees vow to attack COVID-19, as well as mental health and substance use crises.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• Alert FDA OKs First 'Targeted Treatment' for Rare DMD Mutation The FDA has approved casimersen (Amondys 45) injection for treating patients with both Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and a rare mutation of the DMD gene.
  FDA Approvals, February 25, 2021
• AAN 2021 Psychiatric Disorders Linked to Earlier Alzheimer's Onset Depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders are linked to earlier onset of Alzheimer's disease, new research shows.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• Google-Backed Database Tracks Details on COVID Cases Worldwide Google supplied funds and expertise to build the repository; it's unclear how the international database will be financed in the long term.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• Modern Treatment Tied to Low Disease Activity in Pregnant Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Many pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis may achieve low disease activity in the third trimester with a modern treatment regimen that includes anti-TNF medications, a recent study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021
• How to Convince Patients Muscle Pain Isn't a Statin Achilles Heel The strategy seemed to work in this trial: two-thirds of patients who previously rejected statins, perceiving them as the cause of muscle pain, decided they would go on them again, 'which was quite amazing.'
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• No Vascular Benefit of Testosterone Over Exercise in Aging Men Treatment with the hormone, at therapeutic doses, did not impact vascular endothelial function, nor was it additive to exercise in a randomized trial.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• US Cancer Drug Approvals Ensure Access but Not Value Many cancer drugs come to market in the US at unaffordable prices and uncertainty about benefits and harms; their uptake is often delayed elsewhere.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• HHS Nominee Becerra Awaits Votes After Two Confirmation Hearings Neither committee has formally voted on Becerra, who also has to receive 51 votes in the full Senate.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• NPA 2021 Depression, Chronic Comorbidities 'Inextricably Linked' Depression prevalence is 2 to 10 times higher for patients with chronic medical conditions -- especially chronic pain, where the prevalence reaches 40%-60%, experts report.
  Medscape Medical News, February 24, 2021
• Moderna Variant-Specific Vaccine Ready to Study The COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer has submitted a variant vaccine to the NIH for further study and revealed its strategy for addressing current and emerging variants of concern.
  Medscape Medical News, February 24, 2021
• Novavax to Seek EUA for COVID-19 Vaccine as Early as April The company has completed enrollment in its pivotal trial and aims to apply for FDA emergency use sometime in second quarter.
  Medscape Medical News, February 24, 2021