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Experimental Vaccine Would Be the First to Fight Off Fungi
The Last of Us, eat your heart out. Scientists at the University of Georgia say they’ve developed a vaccine that should be able to protect against a variety of dangerous fungi. In animal studies, the vaccine prevented severe infections and deaths from three types of fungi that often cause opportunistic illness in people. The team now plans to start early human trials.
Compared to viruses and bacteria, fungi are a less common source of disease. Among other reasons, our bodies are too hot for most fungi to survive comfortably in, and our immune system generally does a good job of keeping potential infections from running rampant.
But many experts fear that climate change will lead to increased fungal disease. Even today, fungal infections do cause severe illness, especially in people who are immunocompromised or in poorer health.
As more people live with conditions that at least temporarily weaken their immune system, such as those undergoing cancer treatment, fungal infections are expected to rise. These infections are harder to treat and prevent than other types since we have very few safe antifungal drugs and no approved vaccines against them.
Why Amazon’s RxPass Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think
Amazon‘s new RxPass prescription service further increases the downward pressure on the cost of generic drugs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Driving the news: Last month, Amazon announced a new benefit to its Prime subscription service, allowing members access to unlimited prescriptions for generics for more than 80 conditions for $5 a month.
Between the lines: Combined with its purchase of Amazon’s One Medical last year, “it makes clear that the tech juggernaut intends to build a serious healthcare vertical,” per the WSJ’s David Wainer.
“I think RxPass is more of a stepping stone into normalizing Amazon’s brand into healthcare,” said Betsy Stanley, senior director at business strategy consultancy firm Pinkston Strategy. “Compared to previous efforts Amazon made in healthcare, this is getting a reaction of ‘This just makes sense. This doesn’t feel like a big deal … We’re all normalizing healthcare and Amazon.”
Here’s Why Big Pharma Spends More on Ads Pushing Lower Benefit Drugs, Study Suggests
Big pharma spends more money on advertising for drugs that have lower health benefits for patients, according to a study published in JAMA on Tuesday, shedding new light on the almost uniquely American practice amid a fierce debate over whether direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads should be banned.
The proportion of advertising spending allocated to direct-to-consumer ads was an average of 14.3 percentage points higher for drugs with a low added benefit compared to those with a high added benefit, according to the peer-reviewed analysis of the 150 best-selling branded prescription drugs in 2020.
Manufacturers of the top six best-selling drugs spent the bulk of their promotional budgets — more than 90% — targeting consumers directly rather than clinicians for a range of treatment options for conditions including HIV, multiple sclerosis and numerous cancers.
The findings could suggest pharma firms are aiming promotional dollars directly towards consumers, rather than clinicians, as part of a “strategy to drive patient demand for drugs that clinicians would be less likely to prescribe,” said the study’s lead author Michael DiStefano, a researcher at Johns Hopkins.
A Secret Weapon in Preventing the Next Pandemic: Fruit Bats
More than four dozen Jamaican fruit bats destined for a lab in Bozeman, Montana, are set to become part of an experiment with an ambitious goal: predicting the next global pandemic.
Montana State University immunologist Agnieszka Rynda-Apple plans to bring the Jamaican fruit bats to Bozeman this winter to start a breeding colony and accelerate her lab’s work as part of a team of 70 researchers in seven countries. The group, called BatOneHealth — founded by Plowright — hopes to find ways to predict where the next deadly virus might make the leap from bats to people.
While she and her colleagues have already been doing these kinds of experiments, breeding bats will allow them to expand the research.
The recent papers published in Nature and Ecology Letters focus on the Hendra virus in Australia, which is where Plowright was born. Hendra is a respiratory virus that causes flu-like symptoms and spreads from bats to horses, and then can be passed on to people who treat the horses. It is deadly, with a mortality rate of 75% in horses. Of the seven people known to have been infected, four died.
Biden to Push for Universal Insulin Price Cap in State of the Union
President Joe Biden will call for expanding a new cap on insulin prices to all Americans as part of his State of the Union address, the White House said Monday.
During the Tuesday speech, Biden plans to tout his administration’s efforts to make healthcare more affordable, which included imposing a $35-per-month limit on insulin that took effect in January.
But that price cap, which was passed as part of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, only applied to those beneficiaries covered by Medicare. Biden is now expected to renew his push for the policy to be applied to anyone with an insulin prescription, the White House said in a fact sheet.
The ADHD Medication Shortage Is Getting Worse. What Went Wrong?
As the nationwide Adderall shortage enters its fifth month, people who rely on medication to help manage attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are finding few, if any, available alternatives. There’s no sign of relief yet, and no easy solution to the problem, pharmacy experts say.
Widespread scarcity has hit Adderall alternatives, too. Michael Ganio, senior director of pharmacy practice and quality at ASHP said an unexpected rise in demand was more to blame than manufacturing equipment or drug quality issues.
“All of our drug shortage infrastructure and everything we have in place in this country to mitigate the impact of shortages is based on potential disruptions in supply,” Ganio said. “It’s been very unusual to have a shortage based on an increase in demand.”
In recent years, ADHD medication prescriptions have risen more than drug companies or government agencies predicted. According to the health data company Trilliant Health, Adderall prescriptions for adults rose 15.1% during 2020, double the 7.4% rise seen the year before.
Cancer Is Striking More People in Their 30s and 40s. Here’s What You Need to Know
Cancer deaths are on the decline in the United States, and the outlook for winning the war against this deadly disease is both good and bad.
In the United States, deaths from cancer have dropped 33% since 1991, with an estimated 3.8 million lives saved, mostly due to advances in early detection and treatment. Still, 10 million people worldwide lost their lives to cancer in 2020.
During the last three years, cancer has remained a leading cause of death in the world — more than COVID-19, said Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer for the American Cancer Society.
A surprising number of new diagnoses are in people under 50, according to a 2022 review of available research by Harvard University scientists. Cases of breast, colon, esophagus, gallbladder, kidney, liver, pancreas, prostate, stomach and thyroid cancers have been increasing in 50-, 40- and even 30-year-olds since the 1990s.
J&J Drug for Rare Infant Blood Disorder Achieves Main Goal of Phase 2 Test
Johnson & Johnson drug nipocalimab is in late-stage clinical testing in a rare neuromuscular disorder, and if it stays on track could become the third-to-market drug in its class for that indication. But the pharmaceutical giant now has encouraging preliminary data from a separate test in a rare blood disorder affecting fetuses, helping to build the therapy’s case in a life-threatening disease with no approved therapies.
The data announced Monday are from a Phase 2 clinical trial in severe hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN). Stemming from the incompatibility of the infant’s blood type and the mother’s blood type, this disease leads to the mother’s blood crossing the placenta and attacking fetal red blood cells. The resulting anemia can become fatal to the fetus.
Nipocalimab joined the J&J pipeline in 2020 via the pharma giant’s $6.5 billion acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals, a biotech that developed drugs by analyzing the interaction of antibodies and receptors that modulate immune responses. Nipocalimab was Momenta’s lead asset, having reached pivotal testing in warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (WAIHA), a rare disorder in which antibodies destroy healthy red blood cells.
