- Michigan pharmacies limit morning-after pills amid post-Roe panic buying (michiganpharmacists.org)
Pharmacies are temporarily limiting purchases of the morning-after contraception pill following a surge in demand prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade...CVS, Walmart and Rite Aid...announced purchase limits on emergency contraceptives. Some Michigan pharmacists have reported shortages, but most stores are still stocked and dispensing the pill, said Farah Jalloul, state emergency preparedness coordinator for the Michigan Pharmacists Association...READ MORE
- Mark Cuban’s new drug company exposes billions in government overspending (washingtonexaminer.com)
The United States government could save billions of healthcare dollars if it purchased generic drugs at the prices offered by Mark Cuban’s new online pharmacy that was launched this year...In a comparison between Medicare’s spending in 2020 and the prices of Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, researchers found that Medicare could have saved $3.6 billion, according to new research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School published...in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine...READ MORE
- FDA’s drug manufacturing oversight lags as pandemic wears on (fiercepharma.com)The FDA’s Weak Drug Manufacturing Oversight a Potentially Deadly Problem (ien.com)
Two and a half years in, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to drag on the FDA’s oversight of drug manufacturing plants...In fiscal year 2021, the FDA sent out 70% of follow-up letters to manufacturing facilities within 90 days of an inspection. Over that same stretch, the regulator completed 48% of regulatory actions for facilities in need of follow-up within six months of inspection closing, the agency said in a new report...To put those stats in perspective, the agency in fiscal year 2020 sent 78% of classification letters within the 90-day time frame and knocked out 63% of regulatory actions required over a six-month span. And in 2019, it sent out 87% of letters and completed 74% of regulatory actions during those time frames...READ MORE
- U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs opioid maker Insys founder’s conviction appeal (reuters.com)
The U.S. Supreme Court...rejected bids by Insys Therapeutics Inc founder John Kapoor and another former executive of the drugmaker to overturn their convictions for conspiring to bribe doctors to prescribe addictive opioids and defraud insurers into paying for them...Kapoor, 78, is serving a prison sentence of 5-1/2 years and is the highest-level corporate executive convicted at trial of crimes related to the opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the past two decades...READ MORE
- Sisolak signs order protecting those seeking access to abortion (thenevadaindependent.com)
Gov. Steve Sisolak signed an executive order...implementing protections for anyone seeking or providing abortion services or other reproductive health care within the Silver State...The order arrives after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion last week and seeks to provide refuge for those seeking such services. It also addresses the adoption of laws by other states that have imposed civil or criminal liability for those who seek abortions...“Reproductive health care is a basic human right, and Nevada stands firm in its commitment to ensuring there is safe and equitable access for Nevadans and anyone seeking refuge from the restrictive laws in their state,” Sisolak said in a press release...“No one should be punished for providing or receiving necessary medical care, including abortions, contraception and other reproductive health care services.”...READ MORE
- Roll, flip, spin: Stanford develops amphibious millirobot for fantastic voyage (fiercepharma.com)Stanford engineers develop tiny robots to bring health care closer to precisely targeted drug delivery (news.stanford.edu)
A Stanford University team has created the amphibious all-terrain vehicle of the drug delivery world. The researchers designed the millimeter-scale robot to roll, flip and spin past obstacles and through liquids to navigate complex biomedical environments...Multiple papers have described the creation of wirelessly operated millimeter-scale origami robots that can move through narrow spaces and change shape to complete specific tasks. Potential applications for the robots include targeted drug delivery, in which context the vehicles would carry a payload for release at a specific site...Operated magnetically, the millirobot is designed to adapt itself to the environment, autonomously switching between rolling and flipping to get over some obstacles. Applying a magnetic field causes the millirobot to jump over bigger barriers...READ MORE
- Pfizer stock-owning judges play musical chairs in New York City vaccine mandate lawsuits (fiercepharma.com)Judge Caproni Recuses Herself from NYC Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit because she owns Pfizer stock (teachersforchoice.org)
What do you do when you can’t find a judge who doesn’t own Pfizer stock? Keep looking. Then look again—and again...Such was plaintiffs’ plight this week in two consolidated federal lawsuits taking aim at the New York City Department of Education’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Since Monday, two judges have come and gone, thanks to their financial ties to pandemic vaccine companies. Meanwhile, a third has vowed to stick around, arguing her investments in Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are out of date...READ MORE
- After Roe v. Wade decision, battle over medication abortion is mounting: NYT (fiercepharma.com)
In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, a legal battle over access to abortion-inducing medication is brewing...Medication abortion...is already used in more than half of recent abortions in the U.S., is preferred by many because it’s cheaper, less invasive and offers more privacy than the surgical alternative...The pills can be obtained through the mail and taken at home after a patient meets with a doctor in-person, over video or phone, or by filling out an online form...Those consultations must take place in a state where abortion is permitted, and clinics can use the IP address of the computer or phone a patient uses to identify their location...States angling to ban all forms of abortion may have a difficult time stamping out medication abortion, however, which would be far more complicated than simply shutting down a clinic...READ MORE
- CDC and FDA clear the way for COVID vaccines for kids under 5 (cbsnews.com)Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: ‘We are not going to order’ vaccines for kids for state health departments (msn.com)
Some 20 million babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are now eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on unanimous votes from her agency's outside vaccine advisers to recommend shots from Moderna as well as Pfizer and BioNTech for children as young as six months old..."Together, with science leading the charge, we have taken another important step forward in our nation's fight against COVID-19," Walensky said...READ MORE
- Greece files €214M bribery suit against Novartis (fiercepharma.com)
The anticipated Greek lawsuit against Novartis has been filed, with the country asking for 214 million euros in compensation from the pharmaceutical giant...Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris said in a statement that the Greek state is seeking compensation for the damage it has suffered “from the actions that Novartis itself has admitted to in the USA that concerns payments to doctors.” The minister added that the state reserves the right to claim any damage it has suffered with a newer lawsuit and is clear that “all sanctions against Novartis for its illegal practices will be applied,”...READ MORE