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Poison Center Reports of Liver Injuries Rise Nearly 400% Since 2000, With Acetaminophen as a Top Driver
Calls to poison centers involving liver injuries caused by medications, supplements, alcohol and other substances jumped nearly 400% between 2000 and 2024, according to a new study from UVA Health published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Researchers led by UVA’s Christopher P. Holstege, MD, looked at liver damage caused by “xenobiotics,” foreign substances not naturally found in the human body. This category includes drugs, food additives, alcohol and environmental pollutants.
More than 80% of the liver injuries required inpatient care, with the majority of cases stemming from medications. Acetaminophen was the most frequently implicated substance.
“Xenobiotic-induced liver injuries reported to U.S. poison centers have steadily increased,” said Holstege, director of UVA Health’s Blue Ridge Poison Center. “The public should be aware of potential liver injury with various substances that are readily available to consumers.”
GLP-1 Deaths: Are Weight Loss Drugs Linked to Hundreds of Fatalities?
Stories linking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight loss drugs to hundreds of deaths and thousands of adverse events have appeared in the UK media in the past few weeks.
The Times reported on 5 August that patients taking weight loss medication in the UK had filed about 150 000 reports of adverse side effects to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with more than 100 deaths potentially linked to the drugs.
The Independent stated that more than 150 deaths had been linked to weight loss jabs, whereas Sky News put the figure at more than 200 deaths.
Just last month a coroner said that a GLP-1 agonist had contributed to the death of Paula Owen, aged 66, in Plymouth on 23 July. The Devon and Plymouth coroner, Philip Spinney, said that a GLP agonist that Owen was taking for weight loss had contributed to her death from acute pancreatitis. A full inquest is due to take place later.
Invasive Mold Disease Linked to High Rates of ICU Care, Death
New surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlight the severity of invasive mold disease (IMD), finding that, during five years, 45% of patients with IMD at four hospitals died within 90 days, and half required mechanical ventilation.
The findings, published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, are based on active, laboratory-based surveillance at two Atlanta-area academic hospitals and outpatient clinics from 2020 through 2024.
IMDs occur when certain types of mold enter the body either through inhalation of mold spores from the environment, exposure to contaminated medical devices and healthcare linens or products, or as part of healthcare-associated outbreaks.
The mold spores then travel deep inside the body, damaging tissues and organs and affecting a range of body systems, including the lungs, sinuses, skin, and central nervous system (CNS).
For the report, researchers led by a team at the CDC identified 968 patients with potential IMD. Of those, 449 (46%) had an infection, including 89 with confirmed cases, 142 with probable cases, and 218 with surveillance cases, or those presumptively treated as IMD.
Lilly Escalates Its Fight Against Black Market Weight-Loss Shots
Eli Lilly & Co. is stepping up its fight against a booming black market for retatrutide, an experimental drug that the company is counting on to expand its crucial weight-loss franchise.
For almost two years, Lilly has been warning consumers not to take knockoff versions of the shot that are being sold online and at wellness clinics and medical spas. It hasn’t been approved by regulators anywhere in the world.
Now, Lilly is upping the pressure. The drugmaker filed a handful of lawsuits against US businesses, many in Texas, that sell retatrutide products illegally. It’s also asking regulators to do more to rein in the illicit market. The lawsuits cite customer complaints and social media advertisements.
Big Pharma Sues to Block Illinois Drug Discount Law
Courthouse News Service reported:
A group of pharmaceutical companies sued Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to block a state law requiring the drug giants to send discounted drugs to any and all pharmacy providers.
“HB 2371 expands the federal 340B program requirements in a way that shifts financial burdens onto manufacturers, reducing revenue without just compensation and with no justified public use,” attorney Matthew Owen, representing AbbVie Inc. and other big pharmaceutical companies in one of two lawsuits filed in Illinois federal court.
Drug manufacturers are required to participate in the 340B program and its price controls in order to have their drugs covered by Medicaid and Medicare Part B. The program directs manufacturers to sell certain drugs at heavily discounted rates to select non-profit hospitals and clinics called “covered entities.”
The program subsidizes these covered entities by allowing them to buy drugs cheaply — as low as a penny per unit in some cases — while charging patients the drug’s full commercial price.
