WHO Study Lists Top Endemic Pathogens for Which New Vaccines Are Urgently Needed
World Health Organization reported:
A new World Health Organization (WHO) study published today in eBioMedicine names 17 pathogens that regularly cause diseases in communities as top priorities for new vaccine development. The WHO study is the first global effort to systematically prioritize endemic pathogens based on criteria that included regional disease burden, antimicrobial resistance risk and socioeconomic impact.
The study reconfirms longstanding priorities for vaccine research and development (R&D), including for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis — three diseases that collectively take nearly 2.5 million lives each year.
The study also identifies pathogens such as Group A streptococcus and Klebsiella pneumoniae as top disease control priorities in all regions, highlighting the urgency to develop new vaccines for pathogens increasingly resistant to antimicrobials.
“Too often global decisions on new vaccines have been solely driven by return on investment, rather than by the number of lives that could be saved in the most vulnerable communities,” said Dr Kate O’Brien, Director of the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department at WHO. “This study uses broad regional expertise and data to assess vaccines that would not only significantly reduce diseases that greatly impact communities today but also reduce the medical costs that families and health systems face.”
Outbreaks of Deadly Illnesses Could Follow if Anti-Vaccine Messages Continue, Doctors Fear
Some pediatricians are stunned by the possibility that vaccines proven to save kids’ lives could be banned in a second Trump administration.
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump told NBC News that if he wins Tuesday, he’ll “make a decision” about whether to outlaw some vaccines based on the recommendation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a notorious vaccine critic without any medical training. Kennedy ran for president as an independent before he endorsed Trump.
The president doesn’t have authority to ban vaccines but can influence public health with appointments to federal agencies that can change recommendations or potentially revoke approvals. Despite decades of evidence proving the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines, anti-vaccine discourse picked up steam when Trump indicated that, if he’s elected to a second term as president, he’d tap Kennedy for a “big role” in his administration, most likely to “work on health.”
Microdosing Ozempic? Why Some People Are Playing Doctor With Weight-Loss Drugs
Shauna Bookless never imagined she’d become her own pharmacist. But after gaining more than 20 pounds during undergraduate and graduate school and feeling unhappy with her weight, the Hollywood resident found herself mixing vials in her kitchen to create her own doses of a popular weight-loss drug. “I’m playing doctor,” Bookless said, describing her foray into the world of do-it-yourself GLP-1 medication, injections developed to control diabetes and now also used for weight loss.
Her journey began conventionally enough. She’d first heard of Wegovy, a GLP-1 made by Novo Nordisk, from a friend’s success story. Bookless then talked to her own doctor, who told her it wasn’t medically necessary and insurance wouldn’t pay for it because her body mass index wasn’t high enough to qualify her for coverage (without insurance, the cost can be $1,300 a month). So Bookless took matters into her own hands. And it led her to the fringes of a booming weight-loss drug market.
First, she considered her alternatives. She could go to a med-spa, but that would cost about $1,000 a month, still too much for the new therapist. Then, another friend at work told her about getting it directly from a laboratory that produces the product. Bookless wasn’t sure about this method — it meant having no doctor to turn to if she had questions — but a friend of hers assured her it was a legitimate, and a much cheaper route. She put her order in, paid $130, and two days later, in August, a package with a vial of white powder, sterile water, and needles arrived in the mail.
It was semaglutide, a drug sold under the brand names Ozempic (for diabetes) and Wegovy (for weight loss). Following instructions provided in the packaging, she mixed the powder and water and put it in the fridge, taking out one-fourth to one-half a milligram to inject herself in the stomach once a week. Twenty-three pounds of weight loss later, she’s figuring out how low of a dose she can use.
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Purdue Pharma Nears New Bankruptcy Deal With Sacklers, Mediator Says
Purdue Pharma is close to a new bankruptcy settlement with its owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, and state and local governments that have filed lawsuits alleging that its painkiller OxyContin spurred a deadly opioid-addiction crisis in the U.S., a court-appointed mediator said on Thursday.
Mediator Shelley Chapman said at a court hearing in White Plains, New York that Purdue has made progress in recent days on a comprehensive deal that would resolve the lawsuits, adding that she would soon file a written report on the results of mediation.
“The parties are getting closer and closer by the day and the remaining issues, in our view, are resolvable,” Chapman said.
Based in part on Chapman’s comments, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane ruled on Thursday that opioid lawsuits against the Sacklers should remain frozen until Dec. 2.
Chapman told the judge that allowing lawsuits to resume would undermine settlement talks and deplete resources that should be reserved for paying opioid creditors.
“You can’t make war and peace at the same time,” Chapman said. “In order for the mediation to succeed, we need the full, undistracted attention of all the parties.”
Purdue was sent back to the drawing board after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling upended its previous bankruptcy plan, which would have granted sweeping legal protections to the Sacklers in exchange for up to $6 billion that would have been spent addressing the harms caused by the opioid epidemic in the U.S.
