Buzz Newsletter 11/13/20205
FDA Recalls Formula Over Botulism Outbreak
More than a dozen children have been made sick by a botulism outbreak tied to an infant formula from ByHeart organic infant formula. The lots were sold at Target, Walmart, Albertsons and Whole Foods. The FDA has issued a recall and opened an investigation into the outbreak. Symptoms of infant botulism include poor feeding, constipation, difficulty swallowing and loss of head control, and can take several weeks to develop.
Lilly and Novo Nordisk Lower Costs of GLP-1s (Sort of)
The biggest barrier to using a GLP-1 for most patients is the high cost, even with insurance coverage (we know someone who pays $437 a month WITH insurance coverage and a manufacturer's coupon). But the two big pharma manufacturers of Zepbound (Lilly) and Wegovy (Novo Nordisk) have agreed to lower the prices of the medicines to some Medicare patients under a deal with the current administration.
Prices could be as low as $149 a month, but the actual prices are largely dependent on the coverage plan and the dosage, and is not inclusive of patients using commercial insurance programs.
Innovative Therapies Mean Longer Lives
Advances in treatments have led to longer survival times for breast cancer patients, improving outcomes by about seven months. The new study of longevity in cancer patients looked at survival rates over the last fifteen years, and showed that patients with HER-2 positive advanced breast cancers showed the greatest improvement. It's a slow, but steady, increase in survival outcomes.
Merck Cholesterol Drug Kicks Cholesterol to Curb
The godfather/parent of statins, Merck, has a new cholesterol med in the works that is slashing LDL like Geralt of Rivia* going through a field of monsters.
This new pill called enlicitide blocks a liver protein that slows the body's ability to clear cholesterol from the liver. If you block the protein -- PCSK9 -- from doing its worst, then the LDL levels fall so far that rates of cardiac events like heart attacks fall up to 20%.
According to Merck, six million adults in the U.S. are eligible for this kind of medication, and as they work to make it affordable, it replace the use of the biweekly or monthly injectables like Praluent or Repatha.
*Sorry for nerding out -- The Witcher Season 4 just came out on Netflix.
Healing Spine Fractures with Fat Cells
Japan is known for its long-lived population, and the number of those elders experiencing osteoporosis is expected to surpass 15 million in the coming years. Researchers in Osaka have been looking into less invasive treatments for spinal fractures and have hit on a fat-derived stem cell therapy that is healing spinal fractures in rats.
And as a bonus, after the treatment, the stem cells built from adipose tissue also seem to stimulate the body's healing process.
Lou Gehrig's Disease Not Just For Old Men Anymore
A.L.S., or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is nicknamed for an older gentleman, Lou Gehrig, who was diagnosed in his late thirties. But the neurodegenerative disease is showing up in younger patients, and more and more women. But the women are handling it in a different way, and showing up online and in person. This article in the New York Times shows just how these young women are experiencing A.L.S. We also recommend following Brooke Eby at @limpbroozkit on Instagram too.
Our good friend Stephanie passed away a number of years ago from A.L.S, just in her early forties, so we have seen how devastating the disease can be. She would be proud of the way these women are living their lives after diagnosis.
14th Century Source of Plague History Was Never True
Remember reading in school about the rapid spread of the plague across Asia into Western Europe, causing thousands of deaths in less than ten years?
Us either, but we got a journalism degree.
However, for many years a 14th Century poem from poet and historian Ibn al-Wardi was credited as the source for the history of the plague moving into Asia. Turns out, he made it up, mostly. The genetic evidence still suggests that the bacteria that causes Ye Olde Black Death did originate in Asia, but it took much longer than originally thought. Makes one wonder what else we're wrong about in history.
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