Clinical News

Volunteer pharmacists help a free pharmacy in rural Kentucky serve low-income patients.

Medications are often prescribed for off-label purposes without evidence of effectiveness or safety. Unsupported use is especially high for antidepressants, antipsychotics, and sedatives.

Eli Lilly and Co. has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and will pay more approximately $800 million for unproven marketing and promotional claims involving the antipsychotic medication Zyprexa.

Clinical pharmacy services can significantly help curb prescription drug spending and other healthcare costs, according to a new study.

Sun care is a hot category that continues to grow. Regardless of seasonality in most parts of the country and many years of flat sales, this category has come back strong in the last few years thanks to new technology, specialized products, and an overall greater consumer awareness of the sun's dangerous effects.

A look at emerging medications and treatments likely to receive notice in 2009.

The annual summit of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists called for ways to reduce drug errors. The need for universal IV concentrations is primary. "Safety will improve dramatically if we all work with the same tools." (Peter Angood, Joint Commission)

Conivaptan (Vaprisol) is now available in premixed single-use formulations.

A new study shows that more expensive heparin reduces patient costs.

A team of medical investigators at the University of California, San Francisco, has accused drug companies of bias by distorting the results of their trials in medical journals, which many doctors rely on to determine whether to prescribe new drugs.

The U.S Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether some asthma medications, in rare cases, can increase the risk of serious asthma complications.

FDA approves Gamunex for treatment of neurologic disease.

Deaths from C. difficile increase yearly

Drug Topics 360 Network

Stent patients who take Plavix, a blood thinner, with certain heartburn drugs may face a greater risk of heart attack, stroke, and other dangerous events, according to a study released Tuesday.

Rosuvastatin treatment of patients with better than average lipid profiles but with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) resulted in a 44% relative risk reduction in cardiovascular events and a 20% reduction in all-cause mortality, reports Paul Ridker, MD (pictured), lead investigator for the JUPITER Trial Study Group. JUPITER was an investigator-initiated trial sponsored by AstraZeneca.

A survey of new Rx, new OTC, new indications, and new generics

When adults and children mistakenly swallowed Benadryl Itch Stopping Gel, they ended up in the emergency room.

Information on OTC indigestion remedies that pharmacists can use to brief patients

As baby boomers age, the pool of patients needing prostate treatment is expanding dramatically. With more patients asking questions, pharmacists need to be ready with answers.

Barr Pharmaceuticals has received final FDA approval for galantamine, its generic version of Ortho McNeil Janssen's Razadyne ER, for the treatment of mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Medicare has stopped paying hospitals for blood conditions caused by poor inpatient glycemic control. Health-system pharmacists can help prevent these conditions and reduce uncompensated expenses by insisting on proper protocols.

The Joint Commission's anticoagulant safety goal goes into effect Jan. 1, 2009. Physicians, pharmacists, and nurses at health-care systems around the country are collaborating to improve best practices and to put more stringent measures in place.

As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ongoing efforts to ensure that heparin for patients remains safe, the government today seized 11 lots of heparin from Celsus Laboratories Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The pharmaceutical industry is ever thirsty to satisfy patient's therapeutical needs and apart from active ingredients, inactive excipients play a major role in formulation development.

The Soarian information management system will enable Virginia Hospital Center to revolutionize every aspect of patient information management.

Hospitals throughout California are embracing smart pump technology as a way to reduce error and save lives. Among them are The Little Company of Mary (Torrance), Torrance Memorial Medical Center, and the Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City.

Sen. Edward Kennedy's brain cancer has made the world more aware of malignant glioma. While prognosis for brain-cancer patients is grim, new vaccines and drugs in the pipeline offer extended quality of life and hope of a cure.

CleviprexTM is the first new IV antihypertensive treatment to be approved by the FDA in 10 years.

A survey of new drugs, new indications, new formulations, new generics, new OTC, and new HBC.