Pharmacy - Articles
Arrhythmia is defined as an irregular heart rhythm, or an abnormality in the timing or pattern of the heartbeat, causing the heart to beat too rapidly, too slowly, or irregularly. Due to the complex nature of the condition, comprehensive epidemiology data on the prevalence of arrhythmia as a whole is difficult to come by. However, accurate data does exist for AF, the most common form of arrhythmia; it suggests a prevalence of c…
PowderMed: flying ahead in avian flu PowderMed has submitted an application to regulators seeking to conduct human trials of its avian influenza vaccine. Developing an effective vaccine against the next influenza pandemic is a challenging task, but one many companies are taking on. However, until a virus able to cause a pandemic emerges, no one knows for certain which product will be most effective. PowderMed has applied to…
Role of Arenesp and cinacalcet in protecting hearts of renal patients Treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is focussing increasingly on prevention of cardiovascular complications with the aim of reducing the cardiovascular mortality and morbidity to which many patients currently succumb. Recognition of the fact that it is heart disease rather than renal failure that kills most CKD patients, and that the risks start early in the disease process, was reinforced a couple of years ago when an analysis of the Kaiser Permanente Renal Registry of 1.1 million patients was…
It’s good to talkPeople like it when you take time to call. A five minute phone call can do the work of several emails because you can hear someone’s tone of voice and gauge reaction.Plan to talkJust because the phone is an informal medium you can still plan an agenda of the points you need to cover and decide what information you need from the other person.Be politeIf your mobile rings during a land-line call, forward it to voicemail. Taking the call is equivalent to looking over someone’s shoulder while they are talking with you.Record itWhen you’ve had an important call, commit to paper what’s been said and agreed.Writing a one page overviewAn executive summary is all most people want or have time to read to make an informed decision o…
Baraclude (entecavir), a new oral drug developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, recently approved by the European Commission for treatment of chronic hepatitis B viral (HBV) infections, is expected to become available in a few months in some countries of the EU, the Middle East and . It will provide a much-needed new antiviral therapy in the face of widespread resistance to existing therapies, according to liver specialists who discussed the drug during the 12th International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Di…
The FDA has granted accelerated approval for Tibotec and Johnson & Johnson's anti-HIV protease inhibitor Prezista (darunavir, previously known as TMC114) co-administered with ritonavir for use in combination therapy in treatment-experienced patients who have failed other antiretroviral therapies. Prezista belongs to a class of antiretrovirals known as protease inhibitors, or PIs. It is the secon…
ROCHE is set to file for a new indication for its oral, targeted cancer drug Xeloda® following impressive new data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference (ASCO). Jonathan Dickinson, Life Cycle Leader - Xeloda®, told Pharmiweb: “Roche plans to file in the next few months for a gastric cancer indication for Xeloda in Europe. The label will be for advanced gastric cancer, because that is what the data at this stage supports. Data in the future may support an indication for gastric cancer in the adjuvant setting.” Mr Dickinson predicted that, if granted, a new indication for Xelod…
Lean DocumentationDocumentation is the backbone of the pharmaceutical industry – the taken-for-granted support for GLP, GCP, GMP and many other regulations. We have to document what we do, how we do it, the expected result, the actual result, what went wrong, what we did about what went wrong,…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (July 7th, 2006) - In today's edition we highlight Biomarin's development of the novel antihypertensive 6R-BH4 and new research describing a promising molecular target for future sepsis therapeutics. Summaries of this content can be seen below or click here for today's edition of DailyUpdates Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Cardiovascular Diseases): Biomarin advance novel antihypertensive: Effective blood pressure control for all hypertensive patients remains an elusive goal. Th…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (from DailyUpdates 5th July)- Although press releases are quite thin on the ground today because of the July 4th holiday in the US, Abiogen have released important information regarding the start of phase 2 testing of the company's anxiolytic, AB…
The leading pharmaceutical companies have historically focused on developing small molecules to drive their bottom line growth. However, this is set to change, with around 60% of revenue growth for 'Big Pharma' companies forecast to come from biologic products. In fact by 2010, annual sales of biologics will have increased by $26 billion, compared to a $13 billion increase for small molecules. Datamo…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (June 27th) Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Cardiovascular Disease): New phase III data on heart failure candidate, Velacade: There is a clear need for new treatments for heart failure, as associated mortality and morbidity rates are high. Nearly 5 million Americans and 6.5 million Europeans have heart failure and each year, in the alone, 550,000 new cases of heart failure are diagnosed and nearly 300,000 deaths are registered. The five-year survival rate for patients with heart fail…
It's estimated that 34 million people suffer from MDD in the western world, but new research estimates that the number of individuals with MDD will grow only minimally in the next two decades, to 37 million by 2025. Unlike a number of other global health issues such as cancer and Parkinson's disease, the aging nature of the world's population won't significantly increase the number of those suffering from MDD.…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (20th June, 2006): We highlight research from Merck who are developing a novel approach to anxiety and news from ArQule on their oncology candidate - to view today's bulletin in its entirety click here or read on for further information on these two publications Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Oncology): ArQule moves forward with their cell cycle modulator The cell cycle and check-points within the cycle represent a major focus of drug development companies attempting to introduce new cancer therapeutics. One group of molecular targets…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (19th June - 2006): Today we feature over 60 breaking journal articles including our featured study discussing the development of a new antibody being developed for HIV-1. In addition we highlight news from Micromet on their antibody therapy for the treatment of NHL plus today's featured jobs. To see the entire bulletin click here Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Cancer Immunotherapy): Micromet develops new lymphoma thera…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network. In today's edition (see it in full) we report on CD40:CD40L. Traditionally a target for autoimmune/transplant therapeutics, we highlight a study supporting the development of blockers of CD40:CD40L as candidate treatments of Alzheimer's disease. We also highlight a new oncology candidate in development by Lorus Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Oncology): Locus Pharmaceuticals about to enter the clinic with novel cell cycle r…
Cell Therapeutics has announced positive phase III data for Xyotax in non-small cell lung cancer, with the drug significantly increasing survival in pre-menopausal female patients with high estrogen levels. However, with such a limited patient population, Xyotax will struggle to compete with Sanofi-Aventis' Taxotere, Eli Lilly's Gemzar and genericized paclitaxel in cost-constrained markets. Xyotax (pa…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (access DailyUpdates 15th June, 2006 here) Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Oncology): CuraGen and TopoTarget to test the promising combination of HDAC inhibition and retinoic acid receptor activation in patients with solid tumors The histone deacetylase inhibitor class of therapeutics represents a highly exciting approach to cancer. Merck's ZOLINZA (SAHA; vorinostat) and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals' Depsipeptide (FK228) lead this class however . Both candidates are evaluated in our fea…
Administering treatment in community oncology units achieves results that match those of specialist centres, according to the MABEL study; and phase III trials in the US and Europe are now focusing on investigating Erbitux as a first-line therapy option for mCRC. Fortnightly regimen could make life eas…
Vertex has launched a major phase II clinical trial to test a new hepatitis C drug candidate, with a second trial scheduled to begin in June. This is a significant advance in the development of much-needed treatments for hepatitis C. By drawing parallels with similar HIV treatments, Datamonitor's Morris Paterson outlines the pitfalls and prospects for this new drug. The trial will measure the effectiveness of VX-950 in combin…