UMDNJ Expert Available on the Fungus Aspergillus
Rutgers University
New University of Maryland study of Medicare patients after heart attacks revealed an overall low exposure to the four medication classes.
There are now more than 100 confirmed cases and eight deaths from a national outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to steroid injections, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. The steroid manufacturer, the New England Compounding Center, has issued a recall while health officials determine how many people may have received the injections for back pain. Nine states have reported cases and 23 received the recalled product.
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a new therapy for patients with neuromyelitis optica that appears to stop inflammation of the eye nerves and spinal cord. NMO is a debilitating central nervous system disorder that is often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis (MS). In the study, patients with severe symptoms of the disease, also known as NMO, were given eculizumab, a drug typically used to treat blood disorders.
Preliminary research finds that for patients with nondystrophic myotonias (NDMs), rare diseases that affect the skeletal muscle and cause functionally limiting stiffness and pain, use of the anti-arrhythmic medication mexiletine resulted in improvement in patient-reported stiffness.
A medication usually used to help treat depression and anxiety disorders has the potential to help prevent heart failure, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.
A virtual monopoly held by some drug manufacturers in part because of the way treatment protocols work is among the reasons cancer drugs cost so much in the United States, according to a commentary by two Mayo Clinic physicians in the October issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Value-based pricing is one potential solution, they write.
The way the body metabolizes a commonly prescribed anti-retroviral drug that is used long term by patients infected with HIV may contribute to cognitive impairment by damaging nerve cells, a new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
he D.C. Department of Health (DOH) has released a study by George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services (SPHHS) indicating the high levels of marketing by antipsychotic drug manufacturers to Medicaid psychiatrists in the District of Columbia.
Researchers at Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego Health System are evaluating the safety and tolerability of a synthetic cannabinoid called dexanabinol. Delivered as a weekly intravenous infusion, the drug is being tested in patients with all forms of brain cancer, both primary and metastatic.
• Denosumab decreased tumor presence in the entire cohort. • Some patients experienced bone regrowth. • Drug could be first medical alternative to radical surgery.
A form of pterostilbene, a compound found naturally in blueberries, reduces blood pressure in adults, according to results of a clinical trial presented at the American Heart Association’s 2012 Scientific Sessions on High Blood Pressure Research.
Although patients with chronic conditions who do not take medications as prescribed tend to have poorer health outcomes and higher health care costs than those who adhere to medication regimens, a new report sheds light on the potential for multiple interventions to improve medication adherence.
AstraZeneca and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts today announce a collaboration to identify new chemical compounds targeting bacterial and viral infections that could speed the development of new antibacterial and antiviral drugs.
A published study conducted by researchers at West Virginia University has found that doctor and pharmacy shoppers are at a greater risk for drug-related death.
Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a method to simplify the pharmaceutical production of proteins used in drugs that treat a variety of diseases and health conditions, including diabetes, cancer, arthritis and macular degeneration.
Like recruiters pitching military service to a throng of people, scientists are developing drugs to recruit disease-fighting proteins present naturally in everyone’s blood in medicine’s war on infections, cancer and a range of other diseases. They reported on the latest advances in this new approach here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Current recipients of a prestigious award from the world’s largest scientific society will present results of their research here today, and new recipients of the Teva Pharmaceuticals Scholars Grants will be announced during a symposium at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Scientists are trying to open a new front in the battle against gum disease, the leading cause of tooth loss in adults and sometimes termed the most serious oral health problem of the 21st century. They described another treatment approach for the condition in a report here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
In a thrust against the major problem of counterfeit medicines sold in developing countries, which causes thousands of illnesses and deaths annually, scientists today described development of a simple, paper-strip test that people could use to identify counterfeit versions of one of the most-frequently faked medicines in the world. They described the research at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Drug counterfeiting is so common in some developing countries that patients with serious diseases in Southeast Asia and elsewhere have been more likely to get a fake drug than one with ingredients that really treat their illness, a scientist involved in combating the problem said here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
• Denosumab reduced bone-related complications and need for radiation therapy. Treatment improved health-related quality of life. • May replace standard bisphosphonate treatments like zoledronic acid.
A popular class of diabetes drugs increases patients’ risk of bladder cancer, according to a new study published online this month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients taking thiazolidinedione (TZDs) drugs – which account for up to 20 percent of the drugs prescribed to diabetics in the United States -- are two to three times more likely to develop bladder cancer than those who took a sulfonylurea drug, another common class of medications for diabetes.
Latrepirdine, which failed in U. S. Clinical trials of alzheimer’s disease, is showing new potential in an animal model.
Researchers dispute widely held belief that pharma companies face a "patent cliff" and argue that a "hidden business model" provides a solid cushion of steady profits from patent-protected minor variations to existing drugs.
A study published in the online journal Hepatology reports a potential new NADPH oxidase (NOX) inhibitor therapy for liver fibrosis, a scarring process associated with chronic liver disease that can lead to loss of liver function.
A researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center and his international team of colleagues have reported study results on a novel multireceptor-targeted somatostatin analogue called pasireotide (SOM230) manufactured by Novartis Pharma AG. The Phase II, open-label, multicenter study in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NET) whose symptoms were no longer responsive to octreotide LAR therapy found that the drug was effective and well tolerated in controlling patient symptoms.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital study shows how compounds blocking an enzyme universal to all influenza viruses may allow development of new antiviral drugs that also avoid the problem of drug resistance.
A study of more than 500 patients admitted to, and discharged from, a big-city medical center suggests that nurse-pharmacist teams trained to track down discrepancies between lists of drugs patients are taking at home and those they are scheduled to take in the hospital might substantially reduce such potentially harmful conflicts.
A potentially powerful new approach to treating two lethal metastatic cancers — triple negative breast cancer and clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer — has been discovered by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have developed a new computational method that will help organize scientific data, making it easier for scientists to identify and prioritize genes, drug targets, and connections between drugs.
Rapamycin, an FDA-approved immunosuppressant drug under study in aging research labs, improved function and extended survival in mice suffering from a genetic mutation which leads to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and rare muscular dystrophies in humans. There are currently no effective treatment for the diseases, which include Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy and Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy.
Creating a device out of human cells that simulates brain chemistry is the goal of a $6.4 million grant which is part of major new federal initiative to develop a series of “organs on a chip” designed to improve the drug development process.
• Phosphate binders, drugs commonly prescribed to patients with chronic kidney disease, may not be as effective as previously thought. • Phosphate binders may have negative effects on cardiovascular health. • Additional studies are needed on the safety and effectiveness of these drugs. 60 million people globally have chronic kidney disease.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers from the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified the first reported inhibitors of a key enzyme involved in survival of the parasite responsible for malaria. Their findings, which may provide the basis for anti-malarial drug development, are currently published in the online version of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
Drugs used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) do not appear to have long-term effects on the brain, according to new animal research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
A new multicenter trial finds that taking silymarin (milk thistle) has no effect on serum ALT or levels of the hepatitis C virus in people with chronic hepatitis C infection.
Physicians don’t do as much as they could to ensure that patients adhere to their medication regimens, highlighting the need to develop better methods for doctors to identify non-adherence and to change that behavior.
A new tool to guide decisions about safe and effective medication use has been developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy.
Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered a chemical that offers a completely new and promising direction for the development of drugs to treat metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes—a major public health concern in the United States due to the current obesity epidemic.
An HIV drug that redirects immune cell traffic significantly reduces the incidence of a dangerous complication that often follows bone marrow transplants for blood cancer patients, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings represent a new tactic for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), which afflicts up to 70 percent of transplant patients and is a leading cause of deaths associated with the treatment.
The new drug, SynriamTM, is considered a breakthrough, as traditional drugs are proving increasingly ineffective against the deadly malarial parasite because of acquired resistance to available drugs. Taken as a tablet once a day for three days, it’s more effective, cheaper, has fewer side effects and does not have to be taken with food.
A new study by researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando finds that Tolfenamic acid (TA), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), commonly used to relieve pain, inflammation and migraines has now been found to reduce esophageal tumors.
A new approach to testing medical treatment options could ensure that more patients get the most beneficial treatment for them – but still yield valuable research results that stand up to scientific scrutiny.
A drug developed to treat certain strains of cystic fibrosis may be useful in the treatment of COPD. Researchers at UAB showed that a new drug recently approved by the FDA called ivacaftor, normalized airway hydration and mucus clearance in COPD patients.
A new cancer drug with remarkably few side effects is dramatically improving survival in Hodgkin lymphoma patients who fail other treatments and are nearly out of options.
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have conducted a clinical trial aimed at preventing graft vs. host disease (GVHD) in patients who have received hematopoietic (blood) cell transplants (HCT). The study, comparing the drug tacrolimus (TAC) in combination with either methotrexate (MTX ) or sirolimus (SIR), found that the sirolimus/tacrolimus (SIR/TAC) combination was more effective in preventing grades II-IV acute GVHD and moderate-severe chronic GVHD after allogeneic blood cell transplantation.
The Intellectual Property & Science division of Thomson Reuters unveiled Cortellis for Regulatory Intelligence at the DIA 2012 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia today. This new offering is the next generation of Thomson Reuters IDRAC, the company's best-in-class regulatory intelligence tool that provides pharmaceutical professionals with reliable and accurate global regulatory information to gain competitive advantage and minimize regulatory risks.