Source: Children’s Health Defense

Vaccine Makers See Stocks Fall After RFK Jr. Announcement

Newsweek reported:

Vaccine makers saw stocks fall Friday after President-elect Donald Trump announced that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, was his choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy Jr. has advocated against processed foods and the use of herbicides. He has long criticized large commercial farms and animal-feeding operations. But his stance on childhood vaccines is perhaps most notable. He has said that he believes in the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism and said in a July podcast interview, “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.” However, he has said that he is not anti-vaccine.

On Friday morning, hours after Trump chose Kennedy Jr. as his pick for HHS secretary, Pfizer’s stock dropped 4.3% while Moderna’s fell 3.1% and Novavax saw a 2.8% dip in its stock.

New FDA Rules for TV Drug Ads: Simpler Language and No Distractions

AP News reported:

Those ever-present TV drug ads showing patients hiking, biking or enjoying a day at the beach could soon have a different look: New rules require drugmakers to be clearer and more direct when explaining their medications’ risks and side effects.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spent more than 15 years crafting the guidelines, which are designed to do away with industry practices that downplay or distract viewers from risk information. Many companies have already adopted the rules, which become binding Nov. 20. But while regulators were drafting them, a new trend emerged: thousands of pharma influencers pushing drugs online with little oversight.

A new bill in Congress would compel the FDA to more aggressively police such promotions on social media platforms. “Some people become very attached to social media influencers and ascribe to them credibility that, in some cases, they don’t deserve,” said Tony Cox, professor emeritus of marketing at Indiana University.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Blockbuster Weight Loss Drugs Are Revealing What We Still Don’t Understand About Obesity

CNN reported:

Over the past year, the question has been coming in from everywhere — from my patients and family members, from colleagues and passengers I chatted with on airplanes: Is Ozempic right for me? Or any of the blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs that recently caught the world’s attention? While filming my new documentary about the drugs, it became clear that many people have at least considered taking GLP-1 medications, drawn to the possibility of steadier blood sugar, better heart health and especially weight loss.

Even though obesity is now one of the most widespread diseases in the developed world, there is still much debate about how it is diagnosed and what exactly causes it. Some experts question whether it is even a disease at all.

All these topics became the focus of an intense discussion I had in Copenhagen this spring with Dr. Jens Juul Holst, a Danish scientist who helped discover the molecules that are now completely upending the diabetes and weight loss field. By now, you have surely heard of Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound and Ozempic. Some say Holst is a future Nobel Prize winner for this work, while others say he helped further fuel a wildly expensive industry to treat something better addressed with diet and exercise.

Hims Drops Most Ever as Amazon Enters Hair-Loss Drug Market

Bloomberg reported:

Hims & Hers Health Inc. shares dropped the most in their five-year history after Amazon.com Inc. said it would start marketing drugs to fight hair loss, an important component of the telehealth company’s business. Hims fell as much as 18% Thursday, the most intraday since the shares began trading in Sept. 2019. They had tripled this year through Wednesday’s close as its sales of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs skyrocketed.

Amazon has increasingly encroached on various sectors of the consumer health industry while occasionally threatening to widen its sales of prescription drugs. Earlier this year, the on-line retailer expanded same-day delivery for prescription medication to New York and the greater Los Angeles area, allowing customers to receive drugs within hours for conditions such as diabetes and the flu.

As California Taps Pandemic Stockpile for Bird Flu, Officials Keep Close Eye on Spending

KFF Health News reported:

California public health officials are dipping into state and federal stockpiles to equip up to 10,000 farmworkers with masks, gloves, goggles, and other safety gear as the state confirms at least 21 human cases of bird flu as of early November. It’s the latest reminder of the state’s struggle to remain prepared amid multibillion-dollar deficits.

Officials said they began distributing more than two million pieces of personal protective equipment in late May, four months before the first human case was confirmed in the state. They said they began ramping up coordination with local health officials in April after bird flu was first detected in cattle in the U.S.

Bird flu has now been confirmed at more than 270 dairies in central California, and traces were recently detected at a wastewater sampling site in Los Angeles County. Bird flu was also recently detected in a flock of commercial turkeys in Sacramento County.

Malaria Developing Resistance to Drug That Saves Children’s Lives

U.S. News reported:

Over 600,000 people worldwide die from mosquito-borne malaria each year, with the majority of these deaths happening among children under five. Now, there’s troubling news that the malaria parasite may be gaining resistance against artemisinin, the drug most often used to try and save these young lives.

“This is the first study from Africa showing that children with malaria and clear signs of severe disease are experiencing at least partial resistance to artemisinin,” said study co-author Dr. Chandy John, who directs Indiana University’s Ryan White Center for Infectious Diseases and Global Health, in Indianapolis.

“It’s also the first study showing a high rate of African children with severe malaria experiencing a subsequent malaria episode with the same strain within 28 days of standard treatment with artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin, and an artemisinin combination therapy,” John added.