Hello, everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week. Under the circumstances, this is more of an accomplishment than usual, perhaps, so why not take a deep breath and enjoy a cup of stimulation? We have been favoring maple bourbon lately, a new addition to our cupboard. Feel free to join us. Remember, no prescription is required. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to start your day. We hope all goes well and that you all remain healthy. Stay safe and please do keep in touch.
The coronavirus is not mutating significantly as it circulates through the human population, according to scientists who are closely studying the novel pathogen’s genetic code, the Washington Post writes. That relative stability suggests the virus is less likely to become more or less dangerous as it spreads, and represents encouraging news for researchers hoping to create a long-lasting vaccine. Covid-19 has proofreading machinery and that reduces the “error rate” and the pace of mutation. It looks pretty much the same everywhere it has appeared.
Seeking to widen access to medical products for combating Covid-19, the Costa Rican government has asked the World Health Organization to create a voluntary pool to collect patent rights, regulatory test data, and other information that could be shared for developing drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics, STAT says. The move comes amid a worldwide race to fight the novel coronavirus, but also mounting concerns that some products may not be accessible for poorer populations.
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Let’s just pick the once and future EpiPen issues – “Pfizer wrote in an email that the problems with the products’ safety release involved “a very limited number” of EpiPens, and only 0.0002% had the defective carrier tube.”
A quick calculation translates that to 200 failures per million. Back of the envelope, Mylan sells over 3 Million per year, so over 600. The variance is what % are these failures of the EpiPens that are actually used? It that % deceptively small?