Category Archives: Drugs

Elderly patients taking benzodiazepines or other similar anxiety or insomnia drugs are more likely to develop symptoms of dementia than those who avoid the drugs entirely. According to a WebMD.com report on a new study appearing in the journal, British Medical Journal, among a group of more than 1,000 patients in two French studies with more than 960 who were not taking benzodiazepines 32 percent who had taken the drugs for any period of time developed memory loss and other signs of dementia. This compares to just 23 percent of people who avoided benzodiazepines and other like drugs and still developed signs of dementia. Study participants were followed for 15 years and patients in it had taken or not taken benzodiazepines for varying periods of time. The prescription drugs identified in the study were Ambien, Halcion, Klonopin, Restoril, Valium, and Xanax. And even when researchers accounted for other factors that commonly lead to symptoms of dementia such as age, living arrangements, overall health, and bouts of depression, people taking benzodiazepines and other sleep inducers were more than 60 percent more likely to develop dementia-like symptoms than those who hadnt taken any of these drugs. This study stops short of linking … Continue reading →

28 September 2012 | last updated at 12:10AM Frequent reports about drug seizures and drug syndicates involving foreigners are of the utmost concern to Malaysians. For example, this month alone, several major drug hauls were reported. On Sept 4, the Criminal Investigation Department director announced the crippling of an African drug syndicate responsible for coordinating the import and export of drugs in Malaysia. On Sept 11, the Johor police uncovered a drug laboratory in Muar and seized drugs worth tens of millions of ringgit. On Sept 15, police found 13 barrels containing a mixture of sand and an undisclosed amount of syabu in Puchong, Selangor. On Sept 25, it was again reported that the police busted another two syndicates that had been using Malaysia as a transit point, with the seizure of drugs amounting to RM11 million. From the frequent drug hauls by both the police and Customs, it would appear that Malaysia is increasingly being used as a transit point and that the drug problem within the country is urgent enough to warrant more action by the relevant authorities. Given the fact that Malaysia aims, in line with the Asean vision of creating a drug-free region, to make the … Continue reading →

It goes without saying that the drugs you take for a headache, or high blood pressure, or even depression should work better than a Tic-Tac. Thats what drug trials are for: researchers give a group of subjects either the drug under investigation or a placebo to check that the medicine is significantly more effective than a sugar pill. Plus, the trials can reveal any potentially harmful side effects. In theory, this is a great way to weed out useless or actively harmful drugs. But it fails when drug manufacturers cherry-pick their data, publishing papers on the positive trials and sweeping the unsuccessful ones under the rug. And this behavior is completely legal. Science writer and medical doctorBen Goldacre wrote a book, with a long excerptpublished at theGuardian, about how this process leads to approval for drugs that dont actually work. And as he explains, when widely used drugssuch as the diabetes medication rosiglitazonehave harmful side effects, they sometimes remain in common use. In 2003 the Uppsala drug monitoring group of the World Health Organisation contacted [pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline] about an unusually large number of spontaneous reports associatingrosiglitazone with heart problems. GSK conducted two internal meta-analyses of its own data on … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2hvm7g/global_diabetes) has announced the addition of the "Global Diabetes Devices Market And Diabetes Drugs Market - Industry Scenario, Trends, Analysis, Size, Share & Forecast 2011 - 2018" report to their offering. This report is an effort to identify factors, which will be the driving force behind the diabetes devices and drugs market and sub-markets in the next few years. The report provides extensive analysis of the industry, current market trends, industry drivers and challenges for better understanding of the market structure. The report has segregated the diabetes devices and drugs industry in terms of product and geography. We have used a combination of primary and secondary research to arrive at the market estimates, market shares and trends. We have adopted bottom up model to derive market size of the global diabetes devices and drugs market and further validated numbers with the key market participants and C-level executives. This report highlights the industry with the following points: - Definition, estimates & forecast of diabetes devices and drugs product market from 2010 to 2018 - Analysis of product segments for diabetes devices and drugs product market with historical data and forecast - Trends and forecast for four … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bfkc8c/accelerating) has announced the addition of the "Accelerating Drugs to Market - Despite Challenges, Adaptive Clinical Trials Reduce Drug Development Costs and Time to Market" report to their offering. Headache for Pharma as R&D Spending Climbs While Number of Approved Molecules Falls Low research and development (R&D) productivity, combined with the patent cliff and a stringent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, is resulting in climbing expenditure without the corresponding output, states the latest report from industry experts GBI Research. The company's new report* says that, despite efforts made by pharmaceutical firms to cut down on costs, R&D expenditure expanded at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6% from $26 billion in 2000 to $50 billion by the end of 2011. Conversely, the number of new molecular entities (NME) approved during this same period has dropped on average, decreasing at a CAGR of 1%. R&D is a core and integral part of the pharmaceutical industry, but poor productivity means there may soon be a drought in the R&D pipeline. GBI Research estimates that currently as much as 55% of the entire late stage pipeline is made up of life cycle management (LCM) … Continue reading →

By Annie Banerji and Kaustubh Kulkarni NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - A panel of ministers has recommended price regulation for 348 drugs deemed essential, up from 74 earlier, a minister said, a move that is likely to hit prices of costly brands sold by domestic as well as multi-national drugmakers. The panel has finalised the proposal and it would be forwarded to the cabinet within a week, telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal told reporters on Thursday. The ceiling price of a particular drug would be calculated by taking the weighted average of the prices of all the brands with a more than 1 percent market share, Srikant Jena, minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers, told Reuters. Multiple combinations of the 348 essential drugs would not come under price control, Jena said. The new policy, if approved, would regulate prices of about 27 percent of the total drugs sold in India, Nomura said in a note. Shares in drugmakers like GlaxoSmithKline Pharma (NSI:GLAXO.NS - News) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (NSI:RANBAXY.NS - News), Cadila Healthcare (NSI:CADILAHC.NS - News) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories (NSI:DRREDDY.NS - News) are expected to see price corrections if the policy is finalised, Nomura said. The maximum price for 74 drugs … Continue reading →

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (:EMA) recently provided two positive opinions for new indications of Novartis AGs (NVS) type II diabetes treatments - Galvus (vildagliptin) and Eucreas (vildagliptin and metformin), along with other medications. The first positive opinion was issued for Galvus plus insulin but with or without metformin for the treatment of patients diagnosed with type II diabetes, when diet, exercise and stable insulin dosage failed to control the glycemic level. The positive opinion was based on data from a randomized, double-blind, 24-week study which showed that the 50 mg twice daily dosage of Galvus when administered along with insulin but with or without metformin resulted in a reduction in blood sugar levels compared to placebo. The second positive opinion was for the use of Eucreas in combination with sulphonylurea when diet, exercise and the combined therapy failed to achieve adequate glycemic control. Data from a study revealed that the 50 mg twice daily dosage of Eucreas in combination with sulphonylurea helped in the reduction of blood sugar levels in a higher number of patients compared to placebo (28.3% versus 5.6%). According to the International Diabetes Federation, diabetes is considered … Continue reading →

By Eoin English Thursday, September 27, 2012 Illegal drugs played a major role in the death of a man who became ill while being restrained by garda during a drugs raid almost five years ago, an inquest heard yesterday. Assistant state pathologist Dr Margot Bolster told Cork City Coroners Court her postmortem on David OMahony, 22, showed he had taken cocaine, heroin, alcohol and probably cannabis in the hours before his death. The cause of death had been cocaine, alcohol and lignocaine toxicity during restraint, she said. She described injuries found on Mr OMahonys body, including bruises on his left wrist consistent with the placement of handcuffs, as "minor". "They were not in my opinion sufficient to account for death," she said. Mr OMahony, of 8McSwiney Villas, Gurranabraher, Cork, became agitated while garda were searching the house on Nov 14, 2007. He was restrained and handcuffed with his hands behind his back before he suffered a seizure. He was pronounced dead at Cork University Hospital. The Garda Siochna Ombudsman Commission investigated the death and sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who directed that no garda should face charges. Dr Bolster yesterday said tests conducted by the State … Continue reading →

By BRETT NUCKLES ThisWeek Community News Wednesday September 26, 2012 8:38 AM Powell residents can dispose of prescription drugs, old electronics and sensitive personal documents all in one trip this weekend. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, the Powell Police Department will host an annual take-back day for expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs at the Powell Police Department, 47 Hall St. On the same day, the city will host its second annual electronic recycling drop-off day, accepting old and unwanted electronics from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot at the Village Green Municipal Building, connected to the police station. Also Sept. 29, the Greater Area Powell Chamber of Commerce will hold an annual document shredding day for sensitive personal and financial paperwork from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the chamber's offices, just up the road at 50 N. Liberty St. The drug take-back service is free and anonymous with no questions asked, said police clerk Patti Mills. Residents can enter the police department and drop off unwanted pills in a box in the lobby. The drugs must be removed from pill bottles or other containers before being deposited, and no liquids, sharp … Continue reading →

It's likely going to take a cocktail of drugs to fight hepatitis C, but you need only one from each class of drugs. Attacking the virus from multiple angles is the way to go. So it's a good thing that Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) licensed two hepatitis C drugs from Alios BioPharma, because only one of them made it past the critical phase 1 clinical trial. Vertex is dropping development of ALS-2158 after it failed to produce enough antiviral activity to justify taking it further into the clinic. The other drug that Vertex got in the deal, ALS-2200, which it's calling VX-135, looks much better. We already saw solid data from a phase 1 trial by itself, and yesterday Vertex followed that up with data from patients that took ALS-2200 with ribavirin, a generic antiviral drug. The median reduction in virus levels for the combination therapy wasn't quite as good as the group that got ALS-2200 alone, but the percent of patients reaching undetectable levels was slightly higher. Of course, were talking about only eight patients. It's going to take a phase 2 and eventually a phase 3 trial to confirm that ALS-2200 works. Vertex plans to evaluate ALS-2200 in … Continue reading →