Category Archives: Drugs

Treatments for rare diseases are hot properties for drugmakers, who covet the medicines for their tax breaks, through-the-roof prices, and the exclusive marketing rights granted by government regulators. Lately, though, those orphan drugsso named because they treat rare conditions for which there are no other approved treatmentsare being slammed by an unlikely culprit: the European economic slump. As more medicines win approval to treat such diseases, affecting no more than 5 in 10,000 people, Europes austerity-conscious governments are applying the same pricing scrutiny to orphan drugs that they do to widely prescribed medicines for heart disease and diabetes. Thats putting the brakes on an $86billion sector of the pharmaceutical industry thats been growing twice as fast as the market as a whole. We have seen countries which were providing good access to orphan medicinal products now questioning the continuation of reimbursement, says Yann Le Cam, chief executive officer of Eurordis, a Paris-based group that represents patients with rare diseases. In most of Europe, national health systems negotiate the pricesand then pay the billsfor orphan drugs, whose huge development costs must be spread across a minuscule number of users. This year, the Netherlands demanded cuts in the prices of rare enzyme-replacement … Continue reading →

Apr. 11, 2013 Clinical pharmacologists at Heidelberg University Hospital have achieved major progress for improving the reliability of drugs. In a pharmacological study, they showed for the first time that interactions between drugs can be detected with minute doses in the range of nanograms. However, at these low doses, the drugs are neither effective nor do they have side effects. This means that studies on interactions occurring in drug combinations can be conducted practically without posing risks or negative impacts on the participants. This is true not only for healthy volunteers, as has been observed to date, but also for patients. The study was published in the medical journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. "Many chronically ill or elderly patients today take several different drugs. Around two percent of all hospital stays in Germany are the result of interactions between the drugs," said Professor Walter E. Haefeli, Medical Director of the Department for Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology at Heidelberg University, where the new technique of "nano-dosing" has been developed and tested. "Many interactions could be avoided if we were aware of them and took them into account." Drug combinations rarely studied for interactions However, very few drug combinations have been systematically … Continue reading →

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - A spike in U.S. demand for flu drug Tamiflu and strong sales of mainstay cancer medicines lifted first-quarter sales at Roche Holding AG by a bigger-than-expected 5 percent. The healthy performance in its main pharmaceuticals unit - which was also bolstered by approval of two new breast cancer drugs - offset weak sales in diagnostics, and the Swiss group confirmed its forecast of rising sales and profit for 2013. The world's largest maker of cancer drugs said quarterly sales rose to 11.59 billion Swiss francs ($12.44 billion), compared with the average analyst forecast of 11.45 billion francs in a Reuters poll. Analysts at Jefferies and Sarasin said it was a good set of numbers, although diagnostics were once again disappointing. Roche stock was 0.3 percent higher by 02:10 ET. Sales in the smaller diagnostics business were up just 1 percent in the quarter with diabetes care down 5 percent, due to stiff competition and pricing pressure. Demand for Tamiflu - a smaller seller than Roche's cancer blockbusters - accounted for half the beat in the pharma division, with sales surging 84 percent in the quarter following a severe flu season in the United States. … Continue reading →

Washington Week Webcast Extra | States vs. Guns, Royal Visits, and Obama's Budget On the Webcast Extra: we discuss states, tired of a divided Congress, that are taking gun issues into their own hands. What does King Abdullah's visit to the... By: PBS … Continue reading →

Independent Lens | The House I Live In | Are Minorities Disproportionately Targeted in War on Drugs? http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/house-i-live-in/ Premiering April 8, 2013. Check local listings: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/broadcast.html In this... By: PBS … Continue reading →

Court Documents Confirm'Batman Shooter' was on Zoloft Newly released court documents confirm that'Batman' shooter James Holmes was taking the anti-depressant drug Zoloft before he conducted his massacre in an A... By: TheAlexJonesChannel … Continue reading →

British tourist'found dead' inside Kashmir houseboat Syed Afadul Mujtiba, Deputy Inspector General of Police for central Kashmir, says an English woman was found dead inside a houseboat. By: Channel4News … Continue reading →

Independent Lens | The House I Live In | Clip 2 | PBS http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/house-i-live-in/ Premiering April 8, 2013. Check local listings: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/broadcast.html In this... By: PBS … Continue reading →

Independent Lens | The House I Live In | John Legend Music Video | PBS http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/house-i-live-in/ Premiering April 8, 2013. Check local listings: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/broadcast.html In this... By: PBS … Continue reading →

Man enters airport with drugs stuffed in pants By: kcratv … Continue reading →