Category Archives: Drugs

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - The pharmaceutical industry should be able to charge less for new drugs in future by passing on efficiencies in research and development to its customers, according to the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline Plc. "It's not unrealistic to expect that new innovations ought to be priced at or below, in some cases, the prices that have pre-existed them," Andrew Witty told a conference on healthcare in London. "We haven't seen that in recent eras of the (pharmaceutical) industry but it is completely normal in other industries." High prices for new medicines, most notably in cancer care, are a growing challenge for healthcare providers, particularly in austerity-hit Europe where government budgets are under pressure. Traditionally, drug companies have argued that premium prices are needed to pay for the $1 billion-plus cost of developing a single new medicine. But Witty said the $1 billion price tag was "one of the great myths of the industry", since it was an average figure that includes money spent on drugs that ultimately fail. In the case of GSK, a major revamp in the way research is conducted means the rate of return on R&D investment has increased by about 30 … Continue reading →

By Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration is studying unconfirmed reports that a widely used class of diabetes drugs, which includes Merck & Co's Januvia, may cause inflammation of the pancreas and pre-cancerous changes to the pancreas. The agency, in a notice on its website on Thursday, said this is the first time it has communicated potential pre-cancerous links to the medicines, known as incretin mimetics. The drugs for type 2 diabetes also include Victoza from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and Onglyza from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and AstraZeneca Plc. Patients should continue taking their medicines as directed until speaking with healthcare professionals, the agency said. The FDA said it is investigating findings from academic researchers that highlighted the potential risk. "These findings were based on examination of a small number of pancreatic tissue specimens taken from patients after they died from unspecified causes," the agency said. The FDA has asked the researchers to explain how they collected and studied the specimens and to provide tissue samples so the agency can further assess any possible risks. In the meantime, the FDA said it has not reached any new conclusions about safety risks of the class of drugs. The … Continue reading →

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Shares of several pharmaceutical companies that make widely used, newer diabetes medicines fell Thursday, after U.S. regulators warned they are looking into potential risks of drugs in two classes of diabetes treatments. The Food and Drug Administration said it is seeking more information about evidence found by academic researchers that the two groups of drugs can raise the risk of inflammation of the pancreas and cellular changes in the insulin-making organ that occur before cancer. However, the agency recommended patients keep taking their medicine until they discuss it with their doctor. Merck & Co., based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., and Denmark's Novo Nordisk A/S were hardest hit, as their drugs in question account for 12 percent of each company's annual revenue. Merck makes Januvia and three drugs that combine its active ingredient with another medicine: Janumet, extended-release Janumet and Juvisync. Those drugs brought in a total of about $5.75 billion last year. That makes them the company's biggest franchise since allergy and asthma drug Singulair, which had been bringing in about $5.5 billion a year, had its U.S. patent expire in August. In early afternoon trading, Merck shares were down 48 cents, or 1.1 percent, at … Continue reading →

By Gabriel Stargardter MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - There is increasing evidence that the U.S.-led war on drugs has failed, with criminalization often creating more problems than it solves, said Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Speaking ahead of Thursday's presentation of the UNDP's 2013 Human Development Report, Clark, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, said Latin American leaders should be encouraged to develop different policies to tackle the drug scourge. "I've been a health minister in my past and there's no doubt that the health position would be to treat the issue of drugs as primarily a health and social issue rather than a criminalized issue," Clark told Reuters in an interview. "Once you criminalize, you put very big stakes around. Of course, our world has proceeded on the basis that criminalization is the approach," she added Clark did not prescribe remedies to the Latin American governments but said they should "act on evidence," noting that she favored treating drugs as a public health problem. In recent years, many Latin American governments have begun to openly challenge the forty-year orthodoxy of the U.S.-led "war on drugs" that seeks to stamp out the cultivation and … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration is looking into new evidence that suggests a group of recently approved diabetes drugs can increase the risk of pancreatitis and other problems. The agency said Thursday samples of pancreas tissue taken from a small number of patients showed inflammation and cellular changes that often precede cancer. Academic researchers took the samples from diabetes patients who were taking the new medications, after they died from various causes. Details of the research have not yet been published, but the agency said in an online statement it is seeking more information. While the FDA has issued previous alerts about the pancreatitis risk, the agency had not notified the public about pre-cancerous cell changes seen with the drugs. For now, regulators say they are still investigating the issue. "FDA has not concluded these drugs may cause or contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer," the agency said in an online statement. "At this time, patients should continue to take their medicine as directed until they talk to their health care professional." The drugs under review come from a wave of recently approved diabetes medications, including Merck's Januvia and Janumet, Novo Nordisk's Victoza and Bristol-Myers Squibb's … Continue reading →

The practice of prescribing stimulant drugs to healthy kids who are looking for a mental boost is not justifiable, and should come to an end, a group of doctors says. The American Academy of Neurology released a position statement on the issue out of concern over the rising use of stimulant drugs used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in healthy kids. Over the last two decades, there's been a 20 percent increase in ADHD diagnoses, and a tenfold increase in the production and consumption of ADHD medications. And a 2012 government survey found that between 3 and 8 percent of U.S. high school seniors say they've taken Ritalin or Adderall both ADHD medications without a prescription. Teens reportedly use the drugs, which can boost mental focus, as study aids to cram for tests and get good grades. Whether doctors are intentionally prescribing ADHD drugs to healthy kids, or whether they mistakenly diagnose the children with ADHD based on children's reports of their own symptoms, is not clear. Teens may fake symptoms of the behavioral disorder, or parents may lie to doctors for their children to get the drugs. In other cases, doctors might prescribe drugs for "normal" symptoms, such as … Continue reading →

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Google Is Better Than the FDA at Predicting Drug Interactions New research shows that Google, Bing, and other search engines can identify potentially dangerous prescription-drug combinations before the FDA even realizes... By: slatester … Continue reading →

Incarceration in America: The Inside Story BOOKD profiles, The New Jim Crow, legal scholar Michelle Alexander's breakthrough book about the rise of mass incarceration in America. Alexander agues that ... By: thnkrtv … Continue reading →

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