Buzz Newsletter 1/29/2026

Welcome to the January 29th edition of the GPhA Buzz Newsletter. This weekly round up of pharmacy news and information is a member benefit, so if you haven't renewed your membership, please do so now. Don't miss out on this newsletter, the Legislative Update, and your FREE CEimpact Pharmacist or Technician By Design CPE plans.

 

As a reminder, if you have been on auto renewal, you'll still need to renew your membership in our new software system, just this one time. 

It feels like not a day goes by without some news about GLP-1s and their miraculous benefits for diabetes, heart health, and brain function. Far be it from us to leave GLP-1 news out of this edition of the Buzz. 

 

Here's a benefit of these magical medications no one saw coming. A new report says that airlines could reap big financial rewards from the increasing use of GLP-1 medication by passengers. Yes, that's right. Airlines. The lighter the plane, the less fuel it requires to make it to its destination, and could save carriers upwards of $580 million a year. 

 

After only two weeks since the launch of Novo Nordisk's oral Wegovy medication, 18,400 prescriptions have been written. For comparison, injectable Wegovy sees around 1,600 prescriptions in the same time period. 

 

Lilly expects to launch their oral GLP-1 in market sometime this spring. 

Late last week, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, which shapes all of our tax and fiscal legislation in D.C., held hearings in which the CEOs of UnitedHealth, CVS, Cigna, Elevance, and Ascendium answered questions. Or they tried to, anyway, as they also appeared before the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee. 

 

The hearings were ostensibly about how to lower healthcare costs for the average American; however, both hearings quickly put the CEOs on the defensive as they were asked to defend things like their multi-million dollar compensation packages, the tedious appeals processes, and high costs of insurance premiums. 

Fire up the iron lung machines.

 

ACIP's new committee chairman, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, made quite a few waves late last week on the podcast "Why Should I Trust You?" where he doubled down on the new recommendations to leave some vaccine administration for infants up to the parents. 

 

He said that vaccinations against diseases like polio, which has been eradicated in the U.S. since 1979, could be reconsidered by parents given advances in medical care. The AMA immediately released a statement calling a move like this "a dangerous step backward." 

 

While the U.S. has not seen a new case of polio since the late 70s, there are still cases of polio occurring globally in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

 

For more reading, we suggest this New York Times article (gifted link). 

Continuing our theme of "diseases we thought we'd heard the last of," the BBC is reporting that the United Kingdom has lost measles elimination status. The World Health Organization, which tracks the status, pulled it from the UK based on the 3,600 cases in 2024 and more than 1,000 in 2025. 

 

The United States is teetering on the edge of losing elimination status, as we've reported. The CDC doesn't seem particularly worried about it. In a briefing last week regarding the continuing outbreak in South Carolina, CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Ralph Abraham said “Losing elimination status … does not mean that the measles would be widespread, nor would it alter any key measles elimination strategies.”

We're a little late with this news, but needed something good to talk about. About two weeks ago, the FDA approved a new treatment for Menkes disease in pediatric patients. The injectable Zycubo (copper histidinate) treats the neurogenerative disorder in which infants and children do not absorb copper properly, leading to seizures, developmental delays, and early death. With treatment, survival rates extended from less than three years to more than six years, and sometimes as long as 12 years. 

Following up on a story we talked about early last year, the ex-Olympic snowboarder-turned-drug-kingpin Ryan Wedding was apprehended last week in Mexico. Wedding is believed to be part of the Sinaloa Cartel, living in Mexico and shipping tons of cocaine all the way to Canada. 

 

We might insert some jokes about trading one snow for another, but in addition to drug trafficking, it is believed Wedding is also responsible for the murders of several witnesses scheduled to testify against the Cartel. 

Fossils are fun, but due to the sensitive nature of biological material, we're almost always left with skeletal remains. That means ancient jellyfish and other soft-bodied organisms are left out of the ancient history of the Earth. 

 

Except for the Ediacara Biota - soft bodied fossilized organisms preserved in a way that shouldn't be possible. Dating before the Cambrian Explosion (541-529 million years ago), these beautifully preserved fossils have been a mystery. Scientists think they've cracked the code to their preservation -- ancient seawater created a cement that settled on their bodies and perfectly preserved their delicate outlines. 

 

NASA's Perseverance rover found large white rocks on Mars that are normally found in rainforests, of which Mars has exactly none (at the moment). The discovery points to a time when Mars may have been a lush oasis, and not the dry and red dusty planet we know it to be today. 

 

For you Total Recall fans, there may actually have been blue sky on Mars after all. 

Do you know a pharmacy student who is interested in independent community pharmacy? Have them apply for the $5,000 Jeff Lurey Independent Community Pharmacy Student Scholarship, awarded annually by GPhA and AIP.

 

The application can be found here and is due no later than February 21, 2026. 

 

The scholarship is open to any pharmacy student currently enrolled at Mercer, UGA, South University or PCOM in their P3 or P4 year (P2 or P3 at South) who is a current GPhA Student Member and has expressed interest in owning an independent pharmacy after graduation. 

 

Each year at the Georgia Pharmacy Convention, we take time to recognize those individuals making a real difference in pharmacy in the state. Nominated by you, our membership, each of these award recipients represents our outstanding members making a difference in pharmacy and their communities. 

 

Nominations close Monday, February 2, 2026. To nominate a pharmacist or technician, please use the form found here and submit before the deadline. To view a full list of all past winners, click here.