What We’re Reading: ALS Drug Taken Off the Market; Red State Needle Exchange Support; Hepatitis C Cases Drop

ALS Drug Relyvrio Will Be Taken Off the Market, Maker Says

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Relyvrio, the newest treatment approved for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), announced on Thursday that it would withdraw the drug from the market due to negative clinical trial results, according to the New York Times. Last month, the company announced that the results of a 48-week trial of 664 patients showed that the treatment did not work better than a placebo. Consequently, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals began the process of withdrawing the drug in both the US and Canada. As of Thursday, no new patients will be able to start the drug, while current patients who want to continue it can be transitioned to a free drug program. When the FDA approved Relyvrio in September 2022, there was not yet sufficient evidence that it could help slow disease progression or help patients live longer; it decided to green light the medication anyway, citing data showing the treatment to be safe and the desperation of patients with ALS.

Trump’s Surgeon General Urges Red States to Support Needle Exchanges

Jerome Adams, former President Trump’s surgeon general, is advocating for conservative states to support needle exchanges as a strategy to reduce infectious disease transmissions and save lives during the fentanyl epidemic, according to Axios. In an opinion piece he co-authored, Adams argued that making illicit drug use easier has been shown to improve public health and reduce societal costs; needle exchanges provide users with clean syringes to cut the odds of disease transmission from shared needles. He added that the programs also provide overdose prevention education and tools, community support services, and treatment and recovery options. Adams’s support of the programs comes as officials in some conservative states have moved to cut them as they feel the programs send the wrong message, threaten public safety, and are not effective.

Health Officials Unsure if Drop in US Hepatitis C Cases Is a Blip or Trend

Federal health officials announced Wednesday that new US hepatitis C infections dropped slightly in 2022 after more than a decade of steady increases, according to the Associated Press. Data released by the CDC for 2022 show 4848 new infections, down from 5023 reported the year before; the new infection rate dropped 6%. This comes after cases consistently increased since 2013 due to drug users injecting heroin and fentanyl during the opioid epidemic. Experts explained that successful prevention efforts and needle exchanges could have contributed to the 6% decline. They also noted that they are unsure whether this decline is the start of a downward trend or a statistical blip; seeing the 2023 and 2024 data when available will help public health officials better understand the situation. While infection rates declined for White Americans, they continued to rise in Black, Latino, and Native American communities.