Good news for those with hearing difficulties- hearing aids are now available over the counter and at affordable prices! While AstraZeneca gets away with a slap on the wrist for collusion with Alvogen for the delay of generic cancer medicine, the CDC isn’t taking the case of paralytic polio in New York lightly and is considering bringing back the oral vaccine. Read ahead for other news!
OTC Hearing Aids- $3000 cheaper
As per new Government regulations, Hearing Aids will be available in the country at your local drugstore, and without a prescription! Best of all, hearing aids will be available at a significantly lower price than before, starting from $200. This will make the device more accessible, at $3000 cheaper. Most U.S. stores have announced that they will be selling the medical device for under $1000, including Walmart and Best Buy. While Medicare has coverage for hearing difficulties, most people still had to cover the majority of their hearing aid expenses. You can read more about this here.
As New York grapples with a polio outbreak, the CDC considers oral vaccine
For the first time in over 2 decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is seriously considering the use of an oral polio vaccine to help counter the outbreak of polio in New York. While only one case of paralysis due to the virus has emerged, the CDC believes this is enough to warrant an emergency as this was the first case to be reported since 1990 in New York. The oral vaccine contains a live virus while the shots use an inactivated form of the virus and the CDC is debating its use. To read more about the topic, click here.
AstraZeneca fined in Korea over delay of generic cancer drug
AstraZeneca has been slapped with a small fine (for the pharmaceutical giant) by Korean authorities over colluding with generic drugmaker Alvogen. The charge is for the delay of the release of Alvogen’s generic cancer drug in exchange for exclusive rights to market other drugs made by AstraZeneca. The generic cancer drug would be a competitor to Zoladex, AZ’s breast and prostate cancer drug. AstraZeneca was fined $700K while Alvogen was fined $1M. To read more, click here.
New discovery in Parkinson’s treatment
Parkinson’s disease is a serious neurological condition that leads to a loss of motor function and affects close to 4M Americans. While there is no set cure for the disease, new research has successfully identified another biomarker of the disease. This has the potential to serve as a targeting option for therapies. The researchers were able to make this discovery after a comparison of the protein structural differences present in cerebrospinal fluid of both healthy individuals and patients of Parkinson’s disease. Read more about the discovery here.
Bacteria to protect the liver from nicotine?
Recent research has given smokers a lifeline, showing that certain gut bacteria can degrade nicotine and help break it down- preventing it from harming the liver. The use of nicotine has long been associated with fatty liver disease- which is a serious condition in which the liver has scarring as well as inflammation. In a research conducted on mice, it was found that the test subjects given gut bacteria and nicotine had lower levels of nicotine in their system as compared to those who were only given nicotine. To read more, click here.
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