Prescription Drug News and Research

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Heart risk warning wanted on ADHD drugs

A U.S. advisory panel has recommended that drugs used by millions to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), should carry a warning of the risk of heart problems.

12 Feb 2006

Many at-risk people aren't getting adequate cholesterol treatment

Even though treatment for cholesterol disorders can reduce the risk of heart and blood vessel disease by about 30 percent over five years, many at-risk people aren't getting adequate treatment, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues reporting in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

7 Feb 2006

FDA panel gives weight-loss drug the thumbs up

An FDA advisory panel has declared that an over-the-counter weight-loss drug appears to be safe and effective for a six month period of use.

24 Jan 2006

French defend drug after patients develop liver problems

Health authorities in the U.S. are recommending that doctors keep a close eye on patients taking Ketek for signs of liver problems and to stop treatment if symptoms develop.

24 Jan 2006

FDA warns diet drugs contain Prozac and Librium

The FDA has issued a warning to consumers that diet pills from Brazil have been found to contain active drug ingredients which are possibly harmful.

16 Jan 2006

Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teenagers has skyrocketed

Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teenagers skyrocketed 250 percent between 1994 and 2001, rising particularly sharply after 1999, when the federal government allowed direct-to-consumer advertising and looser promotion of off-label use of prescription drugs

6 Jan 2006

Americans don't need to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs!

A study of drug costs around the world revealed proven methods that could be used to reduce costs in the United States, according to a researcher from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

6 Jan 2006

California Governor urges drug imports; Canadian Pharmacies have already delivered

This week California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appealed to Congress to allow Americans to import affordable prescription drugs from Canada and other countries.

5 Jan 2006

Canada's first prescription drug atlas maps billions in spending

Researchers at the University of British Columbia Centre for Health Services and Policy Research have developed a comprehensive portrait of pharmaceutical spending in Canada -- more than $20 billion by the end of 2005 -- and assembled the results into a first-of-its-kind atlas.

15 Dec 2005

Impact of Medicare drug law on retiree health benefits

Four in five businesses (79%) that now provide retiree health benefits will accept government subsidies for continuing to provide retiree drug coverage at least as good as Medicare’s coverage when the new drug benefit starts in 2006, according to a new survey of 300 of the nation’s largest private-sector employers conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates.

15 Dec 2005

Is the FDA too influenced by big pharma?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) historically sound reputation could be in jeopardy due to it's possibly too close relationship with the major pharmaceutical companies.

12 Dec 2005

Depression treatment in children - poor data

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared in 2004 that certain antidepressants are linked to an increased risk of suicide in adolescents, there was surprisingly little data about how depression was being treated in young patients.

28 Nov 2005

Warnings on popular asthma drug could damage drug giant

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending new restrictions on the asthma drug Advair.

21 Nov 2005

The Medicare Drug Benefit: A Prescription for Confusion

If many seniors are scratching their heads about the new Medicare prescription drug plan, so are the experts.

20 Nov 2005

Use of traction to help treat low back pain has no benefit

"Traction was introduced before it was properly evaluated in high-quality randomized trials, and as an intervention is already part of usual practice,” said lead author Judy M.A. Clarke, M.D. “It is hard to convince health care providers not to use it."

10 Nov 2005

FDA wants digital labels on all drugs - might solve the problem of very small print

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requesting drug manufacturers submit electronic versions of their drug labels in order that a database can be established for doctors and patients to search for recent warnings or any other changes.

3 Nov 2005

Drug company proposes FDA check all drug advertising prior to marketing

Drug company AstraZeneca has proposed that it should be a mandatory requirement for pharmaceutical companies to submit all direct-to-consumer advertising to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review prior to its use.

2 Nov 2005

Roche seeking others to make Tamiflu bird flu drug

According to Swiss drug maker Roche, the maker of the sort-after bird flu drug Tamiflu, it is seeking for outside producers for its drug, because of the skyrocketing demand amid concerns about a possible bird flu pandemic.

31 Oct 2005

Plant-derived compounds appear to block the activity of an enzyme that triggers inflammation in joints

The findings came to light while the researchers were studying the wildly different ways in which cells in human blood vessels and joints respond to pressure gradients generated from liquid moving along their surface, a force called shear stress.

3 Oct 2005

Governments considering reclassifying some drugs from prescription to over-the-counter status

Governments in several countries with public Pharmacare and in a few provinces in Canada are considering reclassifying some drugs from prescription to over-the-counter status. In a Canadian Medical Association Journal essay, Lynd and colleagues comment on the economic effects of such changes.

27 Sep 2005