Clinical News

Patient education and self-management are key to successful diabetes care. Pharmacies around the country are initiating classes and programs and offering special supplies and products geared to people with diabetes.

Previous medication therapies for diabetes were limited to insulin, sulfonylureas, and metformin. Promising new approaches include DPP-IV inhibitors, GLP-1 analogues, and SGLT-2 inhibitors.

FDA approves clotrimazole cream. The generic will be available in 15g tubes, 30g tubes, and 45g tubes.

A new label design from PharMEDium should make a medication's name and dose easier to read and recognize. The enhanced labeling will be applied first to four patient-controlled, IV pain-management drugs as well as local anesthetics for nerve-block therapy.

The transplant unit at Indiana University is using a free, Web-based program to help physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and patients manage prescriptions.

C. difficile may now be causing 500,000 cases a year and contributing to more than 20,000 deaths. The epidemic is increasing.

The American Thoracic Society End-of-Life Care Task Force has published new guidelines for treatment of patients with advanced respiratory diseases or critical illnesses.

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

Medication management is part of the new 'medical home,' with primary care physicians taking responsibility for supervision of patient health and coordinated care.

On October 1, 2008, San Francisco becomes the first city in the United States to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in pharmacies.

New guidelines discuss how to treat HCV patients who also have kidney disease.

The American Heart Association issues new recommendations for treatment of pediatric stroke.

Pharmacists need to get ready now to help patients make the government-mandated switch from toxic CFC-driven MDIs to environmentally friendly HFA inhalers.

A pending Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, expected later this year, may settle the decade-old dispute as to whether authorized generics are legal. With billions of dollars at stake, the loser will undoubtedly challenge the government's decision.

Traditionally, generics industry executives are tight-lipped about their business plans. But Drug Topics managed to corral five industry leaders who opened up about their hopes, fears, and challenges:

Congress continues to work to create a regulatory pathway for approval of generics for biopharmaceuticals (or biologics), but passage of such legislation seems unlikely this year with the presidential election rapidly approaching.

The evolution of MRSA has led to reduced efficacy of vancomycin therapy.

Of more than 4,000 cancer studies presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, those exploring effects of targeted therapy cetuximab combined with platinum-based chemotherapy generated the most buzz.

Even as hospital pharmacists are struggling to meet previous mandates, the Joint Commission has released 2009 National Patient Safety Goals, including revisions to medication reconciliation.

Three companies are offering resources to help pharmacists with compounding.

The generic version will carry the same warnings as Depakote.

The purchase price is $7.6 billion.

Entereg is cleared to restore bowel function to patients who have undergone abdominal surgery.

Here are highlights from the most recent ASH meeting.

Tamsulosin and dutasteride combination approved by FDA.

Sanofi-Pasteur's new Pentacel vaccine is cleared to protect against five childhood diseases.

FDA cautions that the labeling of the generic risperidone may differ from that of Risperdal.

More than 500 commonly prescribed generic medications are now available from Kmart Pharmacy.

Two GSK vaccines included in CDC recommendations

Radionuclide imaging agent Lexiscan is now commercially available.