October 24th 2024
Nina Vadiei, PharmD, BCPP, a clinical associate professor at UT Austin and a clinical pharmacy specialist in psychiatry at San Antonio State Hospital, discusses her career as a psychiatric pharmacist.
Backlog of ANDAs could be alleviated with passage of generic drug user fee act
April 17th 2012Congressional approval of the bipartisan Generic Drug and Biosimilars User Fee Act could eliminate 90% of the backlog of Abbreviated New Drug Applications by 2017, FDA official Russell Wesdyk, BS, MBA, said in a presentation last month.
FDA approves first quadrivalent flu vaccine
April 17th 2012FDA approved the first 4-strain influenza vaccine live, intranasal (FluMist Quadrivalent, MedImmune) for the prevention of influenza. The vaccine?s 4 strains (2 type-A and 2 type-B lineages) help provide broad protection against circulating influenza A and B.
Risk of secondary cases of C. difficile in households doesn't justify interventions
April 5th 2012The risk of Clostridium difficile infection among households is too low to justify interventions, other than avoiding unnecessary antimicrobials, according to a new study, published in April?s Journal of Infection.
Rituximab may be better second-line RA therapy when anti-TNF fails
April 5th 2012Switching patients with rheumatoid arthritis to rituximab (Rituxan, Genentech) may be more effective than switching them to a second alternative anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) after a first anti-TNF therapy has failed, according to a study published online in Arthritis Care & Research.
Pharmacists, FTC debate during hearing on anti-trust immunity
April 3rd 2012Should independent pharmacies be given anti-trust immunity to act against contracts presented by pharmacy benefit managers? A representative of the Federal Trade Commission said ?no? and pharmacists said ?yes? during a Congressional subcommittee hearing on HR 1946 last week.