News Briefs

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that patients taking deflazacort for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) were informed in a letter from the company that makes the drug that it will not be supplying the treatment to Canada going forward. 

According to Globe reporter Chris Hannay, German pharmaceutical firm Cheplapharm has distributed the drug to the Canadian market through Xediton Pharmaceuticals Inc. The latter sent a letter from Cheplapharm to Health Canada and DMD patient groups, citing supply-chain problems as the reason. 

Specifically, Canada has been importing a portion of the drug the manufacturer had been making for the British market. But the company has had trouble sourcing a key ingredient for the drug and therefore won’t be supplying it to Britain anymore, cutting off the Canadian supply in the process. 

The full (subscription access only) story from the Globe and Mail can be found here. 

Manitoba wants to add more walk-in clinics to Medinav.

The portal, launched two years ago, aims to connect patients with appointments as soon as same-day or next-day even on weekends and holidays. The clinics currently part of the system are all run by the government.

CBC News reported that Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province wants to add independent physician-run clinics to help Manitobans get better "access to diagnostics, to lab services and all of the reasons why somebody would choose to go to a clinic at 8 o'clock at night." 

Read the full CBC story here.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week is going to require a warning on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists labels about a rare condition. 

Specifically the regulator is informing patients and healthcare professionals of an increased risk of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). This rare problem can result in acute, painless, decreased vision in one eye and can include permanent vision loss. 

“The agency is requiring application holders for all GLP-1 RA medications to add information to the Warnings and Precautions section of labeling about the potential increased risk of NAION associated with use of these medications,” reads a statement on the FDA’s website.

The FDA conducted an meta-analysis for more than 100 “clinical trials across GLP-1 RA development programs because of the small number or absence of cases of NAION observed in individual trials.”

While the number of NAION events remains small, “Overall, the results showed a NAION incidence rate of 6.4 events per 100,000 PY in patients treated with GLP-1 RAs compared to 3.8 events per 100,000 PY in comparator-treated patients,” the FDA wrote. 

Read more about the regulator’s analysis of the issue here. 

A total of 4,178 community pharmacies opened in the U.S. between 2022 and 2024. The problem is, 7,240 closed. 

A new analysis from the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association found that net loss of 3,062 was made up primarily of chain pharmacies (2,680) rather than independent stores (382). 

“Pharmacy openings and closures reflect the evolving landscape of pharmacy access and build upon current understanding of the complex issues which threaten the sustainability of community pharmacy access in the United States,” the analysis concluded. 

Don't buy or use these products. A simple message from Health Canada about unauthorized injectable peptide and non-peptide drugs.

"Health Canada is warning consumers not to use or inject unauthorized peptides after lab testing found bacteria in products sold online," the department said in a warning released late last week. "Injecting contaminated products can cause serious infections, hospitalization, and in severe cases, life-threatening sepsis. The risk of infection is higher in people with a compromised immune system."

Get more info on the Canadian online retailers where you patients could be sourcing these problematic peptides and the bacteria found in the drugs themselves here.