Medicine
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 day agoMedicines watchdog to investigate UK peptide clinics over health claims
UK clinics may be illegally promoting unregulated peptide therapies with unverified health claims.
We've created a small molecule chemical which gets in your body very well. It can mimic the effects of the peptide and can be taken more conveniently any time of day without any food or water restrictions.
The weight loss jabs Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy - a type of medicine containing semaglutide - are increasingly being seen as a medical wonder of the age. They bring great benefits to people with diabetes and obesity.
Emma Dyer remembers the moment she clicked "buy now" on a set of weightloss jabs she found online. She had no medical consultation, no ID checks, and no questions about her history of anorexia and bulimia. "It was just so easy - too easy," she says. "They never asked for my medical history or what medication I was taking. It was like buying groceries."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reportedly mulling whether more prescription drugs should be sold over the counter (OTC) at pharmacies. In an interview on Wednesday, FDA commissioner Martin Makary told CNBC that everything should be over the counter except drugs that are deemed unsafe or addictive or that require clinical monitoring. Makary said the agency is reviewing how it decides which drugs can be sold with or without a prescription from a health care practitioner.
Well, would you look at that? Not only is water wet, the ocean vast, and the Beckham feud enduring, but the abortion pill mifepristone is safe-and the FDA studies between 2011 and 2023 that declared it so were based on nothing other than fact and real science. If only we knew how good we had it when we had it.
A blood pressure medication has been recalled after a mix-up that may have led to some bottles containing the wrong drug. According to Health Canada, Marcan Pharmaceuticals Inc. has recalled two lots of MAR-Amlodipine 5 milligram tablets, which are used to treat high blood pressure and chest pain. That's because some bottles may instead contain 2.5 milligram tablets of midodrine, a medication used to treat low blood pressure.
Yes, there has been a shocking lack of progress in developing transformative psychiatric medicine (We need new drugs for mental ill-health, 5 February), but this may be because in mental health, drugs are not always the answer (see, for example, Richard P Bentall's Doctoring the Mind). Huge progress has been made in the effectiveness of talking therapies for example, free effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is available to all UK army veterans through the charity PTSD Resolution.
When generic drug manufacturers have issues like contamination, it is difficult for those who take the medications to know if they are affected. There is no standardized way to look up the data for where the pills in your bottle came from. ProPublica made an app that makes the lookup more straightforward. Even though generic drugs make up 90% of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S., the FDA only provides piecemeal information about them.
In 2021, amid the COVID‑19 pandemic, Kristin Wall became pregnant with her second child. Her physician told her that little was known about the COVID-19 vaccine's safety and effectiveness in pregnant people. Observational data - collected from those vaccinated before they knew that they were pregnant - suggested that the vaccine was safe, so she could have it. Still, she'd have to weigh up the risks and benefits herself.
The Food and Drug Administration commissioner's effort to drastically shorten the review of drugs favored by President Donald Trump's administration is causing alarm across the agency, stoking worries that the plan may run afoul of legal, ethical, and scientific standards long used to vet the safety and effectiveness of new medicines. Marty Makary's program is causing new anxiety and confusion among staff already rocked by layoffs, buyouts, and leadership upheavals, according to seven current or recently departed staffers.