Clinical News

The program combines a doctorate in pharmacy from Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and a medical degree from Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The development of target-specific anticoagulants has raised the question of their possible use in patients with mechanical heart valves.

Dolutegravir, a new, once-daily option, may allow improved personalization of a patient’s medication regimen.

Study showed lower doses less effective.

In cancer patients with concurrent type 2 diabetes, metformin alone or in combination with other regimens was associated with 34% reduction in overall death risk and 38% reduction in cancer-specific death risk, according to a study in the December issue of The Oncologist.

A new government report found evidence of Veterans Affairs doctors at one California hospital renewing highly addictive narcotic painkillers for patients they had never seen.

FDA has approved sofosbuvir (Sovaldi, Gilead) to treat chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. According to FDA, Sovaldi is the first drug that has demonstrated safety and efficacy to treat certain types of HCV infection without the need for co-administration of interferon.

A specific type of diabetes drug can decrease the risk of cancer in female patients with type 2 diabetes up to 32%, according to a study published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. People with type 2 diabetes have a higher rate of cancer development and recurrence compared to the general population.

FDA has approved simeprevir (Olysio, Janssen Therapeutics) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection as part of an antiviral treatment regimen in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in genotype 1 infected adults with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.

Patients who quit taking their statins are frequently on 3-4 other meds as well, and drug interactions are amplifying their experience of muscle pain.

Reevaluation of RECORD trial data fails to uncover elevated cardiovascular risk.

FDA has requested label and packaging changes for certain over-the-counter topical antiseptic products to decrease the risk of infections from these products, which in rare cases have resulted in deaths.

FDA is warning healthcare professionals of the rare but serious risk of heart attack and death with use of cardiac nuclear stress test agents regadenoson (Lexiscan) and adenosine (Adenoscan).

Pregnant women exposed to environmental phthalates are at an elevated risk of preterm delivery, according to a recent study in JAMA Pediatrics.

Changing the infusion site of specialty drugs can lower costs for patients with cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and other complex diseases, according to the 2013 Specialty Trend Management Insights Report, released by CVS Caremark.

Improper dosing of chemotherapy in IV bags recently caused a problem among a group of patients in Canada, so the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is cautioning healthcare practitioners about chemotherapy dosing.

Collaborative care with pharmacists helped to boost medication adherence in patients with acute coronary syndrome after hospital discharge. However, after 12- month follow-up, the proportion of patients who achieved blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol goals were not significantly different from patients treated under usual care, according to a recent study published online for JAMA Internal Medicine.

Lurasidone HCl (Latuda) reduces depressive symptoms in adult patients with bipolar depression when used as monotherapy and adjunctive therapy to lithium or valproate. This flexibility is important given the multiple unmet needs of patients with bipolar depression, according to two phase 3 studies published recently in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

When pharmacists manage drug therapy for physicians, diabetes patients see a significant improvement in key measures.

Statin therapy is now recommended for approximately 33 million Americans who don’t have cardiovascular disease (CVD), but have an estimated 10-year CV risk of 7.5% or higher. These individuals also have LDL cholesterol between 70 mg/dL and 189 mg/dL, according to new guidelines issued Nov. 12 by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

Prescribers treating obese and overweight patients with diabetes now have two new treatment options to consider.

With obesity rates growing and diabetes diagnoses going up, healthcare providers are focusing on the need to treat GDM in both mother and unborn child.

A small study of patients undergoing bariatric surgery suggests that weekly warfarin doses can change by as much as 20% postoperatively.

CSL Behring's Kcentra is is currently the only 4-factor PCC available in the United States.

Use of both AACE and ADA/EASD guidelines can benefit physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners.

Representatives of Boehringer Ingelheim reported the data at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Short-term dual antiplatelet therapy was as effective as long-term therapy for patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with a second-generation drug-eluting stent, according to an online study published in JAMA.

Once-daily dosing of the investigational drug tiotropium helped to improve lung function over 24 hours in individuals with severe asthma, according to data presented at the 2013 American College of Chest Physicians annual meeting (CHEST 2013) in Chicago.

Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion to settle charges it fraudulently promoted drugs and used kickbacks to spur sales, the U.S. Justice Department announced Monday.