NIH Branch That Studies Alcohol Abuse Hasn’t Funded Outside Studies On Advertising Since Current Director Started
The Stat investigation looks at the priorities of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under Director George Koob. It comes amid a report that NIH researchers were wooing the alcohol industry to support a study about the benefits of moderate drinking.
Stat:
New Alcohol-Advertising Research Stopped With NIH Branch Director's Arrival
The branch of the National Institutes of Health that studies alcohol abuse has not funded any new research by outside scientists specifically on the effects of alcohol advertising since its current director took over in 2014, according to a STAT analysis of grants. At least seven such studies were funded in the decade before George Koob became director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2014. No new grants have been awarded since. (Begley and Joseph, 4/4)
In other national health care news —
Buzzfeed News:
Grindr Will Stop Sharing Users' HIV Data With Other Companies
The popular gay hookup app Grindr said late on Monday that it would stop sharing information about its users' HIV status with third-party analytics companies. The announcement came after BuzzFeed News revealed that Grindr had been securely providing two companies — Apptimize and Localytics, commonly used services to help optimize apps — with some of the information that Grindr users include in their profiles, including HIV status and "last tested date." (Ghorayshi, 4/2)
The Associated Press:
CDC: Drug-Resistant 'Nightmare Bacteria' Pose Growing Threat
"Nightmare bacteria" with unusual resistance to antibiotics of last resort were found more than 200 times in the United States last year in a first-of-a-kind hunt to see how much of a threat these rare cases are becoming, health officials said Tuesday. That's more than they had expected to find, and the true number is probably higher because the effort involved only certain labs in each state, officials say. (4/3)
USA Today:
FDA Orders Kratom Distributor To Do Recall Over Salmonella
Federal drug regulators issued their first-ever mandatory recall Tuesday to a company selling several products containing the herbal supplement kratom and contaminated with Salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it issued the order because Triangle Pharmanaturals of Las Vegas refused to cooperate. (O'Donnell, 4/3)