Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drug Industry Plagued With Shortages and Tainted Medications
When you're feeling under the weather, the last thing you want to do is trek from pharmacy to pharmacy searching for basic medicines like cough syrup and antibiotics. Yet many people across Europe — faced with a particularly harsh winter bug season — are having to do just that. (Martuscelli, 1/29)
India, which supplies many drugs and active ingredients to the US market, has come under increasing scrutiny after tainted cough syrup made in that country killed at least 89 children in Gambia and Uzbekistan in 2022. And recently, US regulators have stepped up their foreign inspections after a pandemic pause, unleashing a slew of warning letters on serious manufacturing missteps. (Van Beusekom, 1/27)
A randomized clinical trial conducted in Canada found that a core strategy of antimicrobial stewardship programs can help safely reduce antibiotic use in patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, researchers reported late last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 1/30)
Mom and pop pharmacies struggling to survive will take another swing Wednesday at a corporate giant they contend is trying to push them out of business. (Tom Kisken, 1/30)
It’s unusual to have the FDA chase down a pharma company and ask them apply for a new drug indication. But Pfizer went through just that and has now quietly revealed a label expansion for blockbuster breast cancer med Ibrance. (Liu, 1/31)
A new study shows that sleep medications increase the risk of dementia in whites. But the type and quantity of the medication may be factors in explaining the higher risk. (University of California - San Francisco, 1/31)
Wiseman, 51, who lives near Sacramento, was diagnosed as an infant with hemophilia, the rare genetic disease that prevents blood from clotting. He tested positive for HIV and hepatitis C when he was 11 after catching the viruses from contaminated blood-clotting products. As a teenager, he spent 45 days hospitalized in a coma from massive gastrointestinal bleeding. (Saltzman, 1/30)
Aptar Pharma wants to reduce the waste generated by your nasal spray pumps. With the launch of APF Futurity, the drug delivery specialist has made a metal-free, multi-dose nasal spray pump available to meet demand for recyclable products. (Taylor, 1/31)
