Drugs & Pharmaceuticals

Americans need assurance of the availability of approved drugs and medical devices in the marketplace so that healthcare providers have more reliable inventory, experience fewer shortages, and more choices when shortages arise. Reciprocity of regulatory decisions would help to achieve that.
If it were April 1st, you'd probably treat the concept of "Vegan Tylenol" as a practical joke. But it's September, and a company is actually selling the stuff.
A new JAMA Open Network paper concludes that Paxlovid is effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients who have been vaccinated or have acquired immunity from previous infections. And a look back at how the drug works its "magic."
As if fentanyl isn't bad enough, a series of opioid receptor agonists called nitazines is making its way into the street drug supply. But is this because the chemicals used to make fentanyl are now more difficult to obtain? It's certainly possible, if not likely. Organic chemists are nothing if not versatile.
An FDA panel voted unanimously to withdraw the decongestant phenylephrine (PE) because it shows no benefit, something Sudafed PE users probably learned years ago. But the real story is why phenylephrine was on pharmacy shelves at all. It's all about the DEA and stupid drug policies, a story we've heard many times before.
The deluge of the use of the term "natural" for product promotion continues unabated. But perhaps it's getting stale because KinderFarms, Jessica Biel's company, is selling stuff like Tylenol and Benadryl with the promise of avoiding "artificial petrochemicals." That ignores the fact that these drugs are all made from just that. Nope, no kindness or farms. Just another misleading ad campaign.
Guess what we don't need: How about an inexpensive, addictive drug called fenethylline (aka captagon) that's pouring out of Syria and addicting hordes of people in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries? If that's not bad enough, it's also used to make jihadist fighters more "effective." There's considerable concern that captagon could be headed to Europe and the U.S. And it's super easy to synthesize. Wonderful.
In 2017 I did an extensive search of Cochrane Reviews that addressed the efficacy (lack, really) of Tylenol (acetaminophen) in controlling pain. With few exceptions, it did little or nothing. In the six ensuing years, there have been more published on the efficacy of the drug. And the message is the same.
A recent article in USA Today proclaimed that we are *this* far away from no longer having working antibiotics, a cataclysmic development that would pose "an existential threat for modern medicine." Is this really true? Let's ask Dr. David Shlaes, one of the foremost experts in the world of antimicrobial science.
Shionogi just purchased Qpex. When I inquired about this, the Qpex folks told me that Shionogi is a company truly committed to the antibiotics space. What I found was truly inspiring! This is a real feel-good story! How often does that happen for antibiotics?
A group of Harvard scientists claims that it has discovered cocktails of certain drugs that will help people live longer. Slow down fellas, you're not even close.
A clinical trial of various schedules for administering the two vaccines found that when they were administered together, "the quantitative and functional antibody responses were marginally lower compared to [COVID-19] booster vaccination alone. Lower protection against COVID-19 with concurrent administration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination cannot be excluded." Thus, the data are somewhat equivocal, but I'll opt to get the two shots at different times.