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Novo's inability to keep up with a burst in U.S. demand for Wegovy has effectively delayed the launch in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. A company spokesperson would not comment on any commitment to supply its drug for the British pilot. The British government said that only 35,000 people would have access to Wegovy under the specialist hospital services, but tens of thousands more could be eligible. Duane Mellor, a dietitian and senior lecturer at Aston University's medical school, told Reuters drugs like Wegovy were a tool, not the solution. Wegovy works by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that triggers the feeling of fullness in the body after eating.

Persons: Jim Vondruska, Sunak, Eli Lilly's, Eli Lilly, Phil McEwan, Novo, Keen, Wegovy, Duane Mellor, Simon Cork, Ludwig Burger, Maggie Fick, Anusha, Helen Reid, Lincoln, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, National Health, Novo, British, NHS, NICE, National Institute for Health, Care, Wegovy, Nordisk, ., Heor Ltd, Reuters, Aston, Anglia Ruskin University, Thomson Locations: Chicago , Illinois, U.S, Britain, England, Europe, United States, British, Cardiff, Denmark, Norway, Frankfurt, London, Bengaluru

☆ Do antidepressants prescribed for chronic pain work?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Around one-third of people globally live with chronic pain — pain experienced for more than three months — and millions of people are prescribed antidepressants to relieve the condition. However, a new review of prior research published Tuesday has found that most antidepressants used to relieve chronic pain are being prescribed without sufficient reliable evidence of their effectiveness. The studies mainly investigated three types of chronic pain: fibromyalgia, nerve pain and musculoskeletal pain. The most commonly prescribed antidepressant for chronic pain globally was amitriptyline, the study said. Anyone taking antidepressants for chronic pain relief should speak to their doctor before stopping their medication due to concerns over the new report, the authors stressed.

☆ Britain's NICE to speed up reviews of COVID-19 treatments
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Maggie Fick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Britain's agency that determines if medicines should be used in the National Health Service (NHS) said on Thursday it is speeding up how it decides if COVID-19 therapies are still effective against circulating variants. The new review process will enable the agency to update its recommendations on the cost-effectiveness of COVID treatments so they can be made available more swiftly to patients, it said. "The rapidly evolving nature of COVID-19 means we need to have a way of establishing the cost effectiveness of existing medicines against current variants in an agile way," the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said. It said there is no evidence of Evusheld's clinicial effectiveness against current variants and those likely to be circulating in the next 6 months. The announcement comes as demand for COVID treatments appears set to drop this year, due to population immunity from high rates of vaccination and previous infections.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are significant contributing factor to UK’s 30,000 excess cardiovascular deaths
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Millions of people have viewed a BBC News interview with a British cardiologist who used the broadcast to spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. Malhotra cites the British Heart Foundation (BHF) for reporting 30,000 excess cardiovascular deaths “during the pandemic or since the pandemic”. A BHF spokesperson told Reuters that there were indeed 30,000 excess deaths involving ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in England between March 2020 and August 2022. Reuters has addressed similar claims linking COVID-19 vaccines with excess mortality (here, here and here), cardiac arrests (here, here and here), and other heart issues. Experts say the 30,000 excess cardiovascular deaths reported since the beginning of the pandemic are due to COVID-19 infection and issues with healthcare services.

☆ Britain's NICE recommends against NHS use of 5 COVID treatments as not cost-effective
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Maggie Fick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The review, conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and published on Wednesday, is its first involving COVID-19 treatments as the pandemic enters a new phase. The recommendations are a draft, NICE said, and until final guidance is published, access to COVID-19 medicines will continue as is. NICE acknowledged that there is evidence that Merck's molnupiravir and Gilead Sciences Inc's (GILD.O) hospital-administered antiviral remdesivir are effective at treating COVID-19. It also recommended against three other COVID treatments, including GSK (GSK.L) and partner Vir Biotechnology's (VIR.O) sotrovimab, an antibody therapy that the World Health Organization recommended against in September. One expert said that some of the COVID treatments NICE recommended against are an important part of the British government's current strategy.

☆ Opinion | Science Has a Nasty Photoshopping Problem
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Elisabeth Bik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

One evening in January 2014, I sat at my computer at home, sifting through scientific papers. Manipulated imagery in scientific papers can look ordinary at first glance. However, this ability, combined with my — what some might call obsessive — personality, helped me when hunting duplications in scientific images by eye. So when a scientist’s research shows a negative result, cheating can be tempting. Legitimate criticism of scientific research should receive legal protection.

☆ Studiu: Majoritatea persoanelor infectate cu virusul SARS-CoV-2 au anticorpi şi la şase luni după infectare
▼ + stars: | 2020-12-18 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: 1 min

Cercetarea, elaborată de Institutul naţional de sănătate şi asistenţă socială din Finlanda (National Institute for Health and Welfare - THL), a investigat 867 de adulţi testaţi pozitiv pentru COVID-19 în primăvară şi relevă că 792 dintre ei (91,3%) încă aveau anticorpi neutralizanţi în sânge la cel puţin şase luni după infectare.Cu toate că încă nu se ştie cu certitudine, experţii cred că anticorpii neutralizanţi sunt cei care dau imunitate împotriva COVID-19, dar deocamdată nu este clar ce cantitate a acestora este necesară pentru a evita o nouă infectare şi nici cât timp durează această protecţie. Durata protecţiei nu este cunoscută nici în cazul noilor vaccinuri mRNA, cum sunt cele dezvoltate de Pfizer-BioNTech şi Moderna.

Organizations: National Institute, Health Locations: Finlanda

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