Injectable methotrexate recalled
May 22nd 2013Sandoz is conducting a voluntary nationwide recall at the U.S. hospital/user level of 2 lots of its injectable methotrexate sodium, USP, 25 mg/mL, 40 mL vials, as a result of the discovery of particulate matter during routine quality examination of vials included among the manufacturer’s retention samples.
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Managed care approach to substance abuse treatment
May 20th 2013An examination of people’s behaviors as they relate to drug use in the 20th century has shown that people will expend a large amount of energy to acquire any agent that has the ability to alter their minds, bodies, or behaviors in order to achieve a euphoric effect.
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FDA concerned about higher doses of investigational sleep agent
May 20th 2013The proposal of the investigational sleep agent called suvorexant (Merck), is believed to target sleep disturbances and insomnia through a different mechanism compared to the agents that are currently on the market, but FDA has concerns over the higher dosages of the drug and its safety profile.
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Actavis to buy Warner Chilcott for $8.5 billion in stock transaction
May 20th 2013Actavis Inc. announced May 20 its plans to acquire Warner Chilcott in a stock transaction deal, which is worth approximately $8.5 billion. The merger is expected to create a global specialty pharmaceutical company serving the women’s health, gastroenterology, urology, and dermatology therapeutic sectors, according to a joint company release.
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Senators introduce revised draft compounding bill
May 16th 2013Senators from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee have introduced a revised version of its draft compounding bill to help improve the safety of compounded human and animal drugs, following feedback earlier this month from stakeholders, including the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).
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Pharmacist-physician collaborative care effective in T2DM
May 15th 2013Pharmacists working in a collaborative relationship with physicians in different practice settings were able to help more patients with type 2 diabetes achieve glycemic control without adding to the medication burden, according to a report published May 8 in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy.
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Improvement needed in HCV testing, reporting
May 15th 2013Hepatitis C testing and reporting must be improved as the mortality rate of HCV is high among those who are relatively young, according to a new study published in the May 7, 2013, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Early Release on its website.
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Daily fatty acid intake doesn’t reduce CV mortality risk
May 15th 2013Patients with multiple cardiovascular (CV) risk factors are not able to reduce their mortality risk from CV causes with daily n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake, according to a long-term Italian study published May 9 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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FDA denies request to block generic versions of Opana ER
May 14th 2013FDA has denied Endo Health Solutions' petition to block generic forms of its opioid agonist Opana ER, which contains oxymorphone. FDA’s decision comes just weeks after it nixed generic OxyContin and approved abuse-deterrent labeling for reformulated OxyContin (Purdue Pharma).
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Adhering to generic cholesterol-lowering drugs is associated with lower overall costs of care
May 13th 2013Individuals who regularly take statins to reduce high cholesterol will see lower hospitalization rates according to a study presented at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s 25th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, in April.
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Zoster vaccine effective but underused in elderly
May 7th 2013Zoster vaccination was associated with a reduction in post-herpetic neuralgia among those who are aged 65 and older, according to a study, published in PLoS Medicine. However, they also found that the use of the shingles vaccine was also very low among certain population groups
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Investigational new agent targets chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1
May 7th 2013Interim data from a phase 2, multicenter, randomized, dose-ranging clinical trial evaluating the safety and antiviral activity of MK-5172 (Merck), for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection, was presented at the 2013 International Liver Congress, 48th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, in Amsterdam.
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FDA approves combination agent to help lower LDL cholesterol
May 6th 2013FDA has approved ezetimibe and atorvastatin (Liptruzet, Merck) tablets for the treatment of elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in patients with primary or mixed hyperlipidemia as adjunctive therapy to diet, according to the manufacturer.
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Glutamine, antioxidants: Don’t offer to critically ill patients
May 1st 2013For critically ill adults with multiorgan failure, early supplementation with glutamine or antioxidants does not improve clinical outcomes, and glutamine may increase the mortality rate of this patient population, according to a study published in the April 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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5-ARI does not affect prostate cancer mortality
May 1st 2013Eighteen years of follow-up of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) suggests that 7 years of treatment with the 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor finasteride (Proscar) for prostate cancer prevention does not appear to affect mortality but does reduce the risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis.
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Efficacy of androgen receptor blockade in castration-resistant prostate Ca not dependent on age
May 1st 2013Older men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) derive a similar if not superior survival benefit from treatment with enzalutamide as do younger men, according to a post-hoc analysis of the phase III AFFIRM trial.
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[INFOGRAPHIC] Medication use in autism spectrum disorders: What is the evidence?
May 1st 2013Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are complex neurodevelopmental disorders that involve significant social functional impairment and behavioral inflexibility. Autism is the most severe form of ASD and includes significant impairment in communication skills. Treatment of ASD is complex and involves a comprehensive educational interventional plan. Medications are used only as adjuncts, and only in cases in which maladaptive behaviors are severe or life-threatening, or to enable a patient to participate in their behavioral therapies. The most commonly used medications include second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and psychostimulants. Risperidone and aripiprazole are the only medications to carry an FDA indication to treat ASD-related symptoms. There is interest in using newer agents, such as atomoxetine, galantamine, rivastigmine, and memantine, to treat ASD-associated symptoms, but data are lacking to support their use.
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