The PM sees 'light at the end of the tunnel' and for once we won't scoff

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly has launched. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions.

⇒ Issue #134 (In numerology, 134 connotes purpose and self-worth. Entirely by coincidence, Form I-134 is a document required by the USA Citizenship and Immigration Services and is  used by foreign nationals to show that visa applicants have sponsorship and will not become public charges while in the country.)

⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 11/12: 276,479*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 11/12: 10,693*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 11/12: 51,554,166*

⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 11/12: 1,273,714*

November 11, 2020—Welcome back from the brink, CurveFlatteners. It’s Mitch Shannon behind the counter this morning, offering up today’s Covid news, along with a side order of something we haven’t had in stock for a while: optimism. 

We’ve turned our 10-month-old frown upside down following a rapid-fire hat trick — count ‘em, one, two, three — of positive developments.

(1). The unabashedly anti-science, pro-ignorance 45th U.S. President is finally about to relinquish his grasp on power — although, as a putz to the very end, he’s determined to keep arguing the incontestible election result.

(2). In spite of cloddish interventions by the putz’s government (which included efforts to effectively lock other countries out of access to certain vaccine candidates), the Pfizer and BioNTech discovery this week demonstrated 90 per cent effectiveness during a Phase III trial involving more than 43,000 subjects. Unlike several competitors, Pfizer did not accept funding from Washington’s “Warp Speed” development kitty, which came with encumbrances. (And is thus a winning bet by Pfizer, which stands to split a share of US$13 billion.) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau termed the news as "light at the end of the tunnel." We’d tentatively call that a rare and welcome moment in the sun for Big Pharma. Perhaps, assuming the trial results hold up and other concerns are addressed, someone among the planet’s 7.6 billion humans might think to say, “Hey, you lab guys, thanks for saving our species.” Canada’s federal government has ordered 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while the European Union this morning announced plans to buy 300 million jabs.

(3). For fans of husband-and-wife science heroes (bonjour, Nobel Laureates Pierre et Marie Curie, et Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie), the creators of the BioNTech vaccine are a married couple: physicians Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci (pictured above.) Even better, they are respectively, a Turkish immigrant to Germany and the daughter of a Turkish immigrant to Germany. This is a particularly satisfying repudiation of four years of rising anti-immigrant rhetoric in the USA and EU. Perhaps, again assuming the trial results hold up, someone among the planet’s 7.6 billion humans might remember to say, “Let’s be nicer to people born outside our country. One day those two immigrant children next door might grow up to become Drs. Sahin and Tuereci.”

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma

COVID CHRONICLE 11-11-20

• Puzzling links between Covid-19 infection and psychiatric disorders were revealed by Oxford University researchers this week. One finding determined patients with prior psychiatric disorders had a 65 per cent greater likelihood of contracting the virus. One theory is that psychiatric medications may lower systemic defenses against the virus, while another thought is that certain CNS disorders may make patients more susceptible to Covid. Meanwhile, the research on USA patient health records indicated Covid-19 could double the risk of first-time occurrences of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders.

• New early-stage research from the Cleveland Clinic appears to indicate the hormone melatonin, widely used as a sleep aid, may have value for coronavirus patients. The findings were based on artificial intelligence modeling.  Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., of the clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute, said his team’s research “identified 34 drugs as repurposing candidates, melatonin chief among them.” Cheng cautioned his observations

• Two groups are experiencing difficulties during the Covid pandemic, namely the young and the old. New research from Aarhus University in Denmark, published in BMC Psychiatry, examined how children and young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) experience the crisis. Study lead Prof. Per Hove Thomsen says, "Their experience was that their OCD, anxiety and depressive symptoms worsened during a crisis like Covid-19.” Half the study group said their symptoms had become worse, while a third of them replied that their anxiety had worsened and a third that their depressive symptoms had worsened. Meanwhile, Georgia State University researchers are developing a program intended to reduce social isolation, loneliness, and suicide ideation among older adults, which the group claims is the demographic "hardest hit by Covid-19." The initiative is training nutrition delivery personnel — also known as "Meals on Wheels" drivers — to respond and intervene when they encounter signs of mood disorders or suicidal tendencies.

WHAT CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

Our Chronicle.Academy unit is managing a medical advisory board this evening for a pharma client with a promising new approach to pediatric epilepsy symptoms. I'm curious to hear what the key opinion leaders have to say about this interesting therapy.

TONIGHT WE ARE READING...

Another potboiler in the Leonid McGill series of crime novels by veteran noir novelist Walter Mosley, "And Sometimes I Wonder About You" (2015, Doubleday, Cdn$22, paperback.) Mosley's work has been adapted for the large and small screens, but filmmakers have yet to tackle the subject of McGill, a reformed thug with a complicated family life who seeks to right wrongs in Manhattan. I wouldn't be surprised if auteur Jordan Peele options this series if he hasn't already.

AND TOMORROW...

John Evans will be doling out the Thursday Covid-19 news. Until then, please stay safe out there.