Rosuvastatin is an investigational HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor expected to gain FDA approval later this year for treatment of hypercholesterolemia. It has significantly exceeded atorvastatin, pravastatin, and simvastatin in reducing LDL cholesterol in clinical trials. This Focus article reviews those trials as well as rosuvastatin's pharmacologic and safety profiles in an effort to delineate its likely role in cholesterol-reducing therapy.
These authors report on their literature search of studies assessing the impact of factors influencing the diffusion of new drug therapies and physicians' adoption and eventual relinquishment of those therapies. They specifically explore how their finds can help better align physician prescribing with formulary objectives.
Optimal management can raise health plans' generic utilization rates from the current average of 34.5% to 51%. So concludes a new study from Stanley Wallack, PhD, and other researchers from Brandeis University.
New dosage regimen: Single-dose and 3-day regimens for acute otitis media
New formulation: Monthly SC injection form of GnRH agonist for advanced prostate cancer
New indication: Oral cancer drug approved to treat rare gastrointestinal tumors
New indication: Biologic cleared for psoriatic arthritis
New indication: Broader allergy indication, new hives indication for nonsedating antihistamine
New biologic: Pegylated form of filgrastim requiring less-frequent administration
New biologic: Factor Xa inhibitor for reducing risk of blood clotsafter orthopedic surgeries
A simple enhancement to Pyxis drug dispensing machines can drastically improve adverse drug event (ADE) capture.
If your organization hasn't yet selected a computerized provider order entry system (CPOE), it will likely benefit from the checklist of features and functionality criteria presented by Richard Diefes, MS.
What's your institution's policy for handling the following situation: A physician wishes to prescribe an FDA-approved drug for an off-label indication for which there is little literature support.
New Orleans-When faced with ensuring the appropriate use of high-risk, high-cost drugs, physician credentialing may be another option worth considering.
The Bush administration's $2 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2003 includes $190 billion to improve Medicare, almost half of that aimed to help seniors buy medicines.
Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT-Although the economic advantages of IV to oral (PO) antibiotic conversion programs have been documented in numerous studies, most of these programs require physician contact to encourage the switch.
To retain resources or to justify allocation of additional resources, it's essential to demonstrate the value that outcomes projects bring to organizations. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's project review process serves as a useful model for how to do so. This month's column explores the AHRQ process for following up and communicating the results of outcomes projects conducted at various practice settings.
Prompted by the proliferation of new therapies in the field, the American College of Rheumatology has updated its guidelines for the management of rheumatoid arthritis.
Contraryto hypothetical additive benefits, a combination of aspirin and warfarinappears to be no more effective than aspirin alone for preventing vascularevents and death after acute myocardial infarction (MI). So concludes arandomized, open-label Department of Veterans Affairs study in 5,059 post-MIpatients.
Direct thrombin inhibitors are superior to heparin in preventing death or myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), according to a meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials.
WellPoint Health Networks plans to take reference drug pricing into new territory-commercial pharmacy benefits.
Medications currently available to treat osteoporosis slow the rate of bone loss primarily by reducing bone resorption. The purported advantage of the anabolic agent teriparatide is that it actually promotes new bone growth. Clinical trials have shown the drug to be effective for vertebral fracture prevention in postmenopausal women at high risk. Additional evidence is accumulating to support teriparatide's use in other populations (including men) with osteoporosis. This injectable is likely to receive FDA approval in the second half of this year.
Pharmacologic therapy is the second cornerstone of the medical management of reflux esophagitis. Because the merits of various drug classes for reflux esophagitis have been widely discussed, the focus of this article is on differing strategies for using these classes. The management strategies - and the rationale and evidence for promoting or rejecting them - are discussed for step-up therapy, empiric therapy, ste-down therapy, on-demand proton pump inhibitor use, combination therapies, and other considerations.
VA Medical Center, Miami-ACE inhibitor therapy is recognized as the gold standard treatment for congestive heart failure (CHF) as well as diabetic nephropathy due to its effect on the morbidity and mortality associated with these conditions.
New combination: Fixed niacin/statin combination for second-line lipid therapy
