– Needles used to administer vaccines always seem too long to those receiving the jab. But in certain cases, they might not be long enough: In a study of 24 obese adolescents receiving the hepatitis B vaccine, use of a 1.5-inch needle, rather than the standard 1-inch version, produced 50% higher antibody levels, which were closer to those seen after vaccinating non-obese patients. The difference seems to come in better penetrating the fatty tissue, which would otherwise break down the vaccine. The findings show an increasing need for specialized equipment – such as larger gurneys, cots and even lifting equipment — tailored to treat obese individuals. (Reuters)

— Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dismissed Nikolai Yurgel, director of the country’s Federal Supervision Service for Healthcare and Social Development, after Yurgel criticized the Law on Medicines Turnover last week. Approved last month by the State Duma, the law sets prices on nearly 5,500 pharmaceuticals, among other market regulations, which Yurgel and pharmaceutical companies believe will drive up costs and stifle the industry. It’s another Nutt-y case of government trying to silence its critics. (Moscow Times)

— According to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, “Up to 40% of the drugs Americans take are imported, and up to 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in those drugs come from foreign sources.” This makes it all the more important then that the agency has announced it will use an online tool called Predict (Predictive Risk-Based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting) to determine which drug imports are high-risk and therefore require close inspection. For more on the FDA’s handling of imported drugs, check out this month’s print story. (Pharmalot)

— The Wakefield study linking MMR vaccines and autism may have been pulled from the record, but another linkage study is now making waves. Data from nearly five million California births in the 1990s shows the risk of a child developing autism increases by 18% with every five years of age for the mother; women over 40, for example, have a 77% higher risk than those under 25. (NYTimes)

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