Archive for the 'Main' Category

11 Mar

Pharmaceutical Approval Update: part 3

Metformin tablet. Hypoglycemia does not usually occur in patients receiving metformin alone, but it can occur when caloric intake is deficient, when patients do not compensate for strenuous exercise with caloric supplementation, or during concomitant use with other glucose-lowering agents (e.g., sulfonylureas and insulin) or ethanol. Elderly, debilitated, or malnourished patients and those with adrenal [...]

10 Mar

Pharmaceutical Approval Update: part 2

Impaired hepatic function. Impaired hepatic function has been associated with some cases of lactic acidosis. In general, sitagliptin/metformin should be avoided in patients with evidence of hepatic disease.

09 Mar

Pharmaceutical Approval Update

Sitagliptin/Metformin drug HCl Tablets (Janumet)
Manufacturer: Merck, Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ Indication: Sitagliptin/metformin HCl tablets are indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adult patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus when glucose levels are not adequately controlled with generic metformin (Glucophage generic, Bristol-Myers Squibb) or sitagliptin (Januvia, Merck) alone or in [...]

05 Mar

Congress’ Remedy for Post-marketing part 3

The agency’s own statistics for 2006 show that drug companies failed to initiate more than 70% of post-marketing studies that they committed to performing during that year; 899 of the 1,259 post-marketing studies (71%) promised had not begun as of September 30, 2006. This was an increase of 5% over fiscal year 2005. When that [...]

04 Mar

Congress’ Remedy for Post-marketing part 2

When Caroline Loew, PhD, Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), appeared before a House committee in May 2007, she gave a more expansive analysis of MedWatch’s flaws:

03 Mar

Congress’ Remedy for Post-marketing

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Merck’s quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (Gardasil) on June 8, 2006, the agency extracted some post-approval commitments from the company, as it frequently does when it “green-lights” an important new drug around which questions still revolve. Those commitments involved additional testing of Gardasil after it went on the [...]

02 Mar

Gastric Acid Suppression by Proton Pump Inhibitors: DISCUSSION

In studies evaluating PPIs as a risk factor for CDAD, results have been mixed. This relationship has been somewhat ambiguous, and the exact mechanism of action is only speculative. C. difficile is a gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobic bacillus. The spores are acid-resistant, and they are not affected by the gastric pH. By contrast, a vegetative inoculum [...]

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