Online Pharmacy Medicine Blog

Federal Advisory panel will vote today on whether Avandia, a popular drug for Type 2 diabetes, is safe enough to stay on the market. Avandia is one of many diabetes medications like Metformin, Actos, Glucotrol, Byetta, and Januvia used to treat type 2 diabetes.

Conflicting study results from the drugs maker GlaxoSmithKline along with other problems due to feuding scientist have made it hard for reviewers to get a bead on what should be done about the diabetes medication.

According to the New York Times,

On Tuesday, panel members heard evidence that patients in a crucial trial of Avandia who suffered heart attacks did not have their problems included in the trial’s final tally. And internal company documents made public in recent days show that the company hid from the public crucial information about Avandia’s safety woes.

Some reviewers within the F.D.A. said Tuesday that studies demonstrate conclusively that Avandia is far more dangerous to the heart than a similar medicine, Actos, made by Takeda. But other reviewers said that the trials are far more equivocal and provide little evidence that Avandia is dangerous. Scientists at GlaxoSmithKline argued that Avandia is a safe and important option in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.

I am surprised that the FDA has let this drag on as long as it has. Hopefully a decision will be made one way or the other so people can stop living in fear of there diabetes medication.

Today Israel drug maker Teva stated that it has received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration to go ahead with production of generic antidepressant drug Effexor XR.

The drug originally produced by Wyeth has finally ran out of its exclusivity period, which means we will see a cheaper alternative on shelves beginning July 1.

Teva had sought approval for its generic drug in 2006, but under a patent settlement with Wyeth, the company agreed to hold off on selling the drug until now.

This is great news for those that pay for there prescriptions out of pocket. Generic versions will be drastically cheaper than there brand name counterparts. You can also expect to see the brand versions price drop due to the added competition.

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According to a report released today, U.S. employers can expect to see their health care costs rise by around 9 percent next year.
The South Florida Business Journal reports that

PricewaterhouseCoopers report predicted the continuation of several relevant trends in health care, namely the shifting of costs from employer to employee. As the premiums continue to increase and the effects of the recession drain businesses, more employers are requiring their employees to pay more for their benefits.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report said that 42 percent of the employers surveyed plan to increase employee contributions for health insurance.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report also found that:

* Sixty-seven percent of employers plan to expand or improve wellness programs
* More employers are dropping health benefits for retirees
* For the first time, the majority of U.S. workers are expected to have a deductible of $400 or more next year

Employers blame shifting of Medicare costs for much of the anticipated increase in their health care costs, the report found. It is yet to be seen how this will affect prescription medication coverage, but odds are it is not going to make it any cheaper.

If you are struggling to pay for your prescription drugs like Actos, Lexapro, Singulair, or Zocor, don’t wait around for the government or your employers help, take matters into your own hands today.

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Today AstraZeneca encountered a major setback in trying to extend the patent life of it blockbuster acid reflux drug Nexium. The patent was denied a patent extension by US regulators who did not see what the wanted when Astra tried to combine the drug with aspirin.

Loss of patent for Nexium and its 5 billion in yearly sales would be a big problem for AstraZeneca, who is trying to develop new drugs to fill the shoes of those who have lost patent protection in key markets.

According to ABC news,

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said it got a Complete Response Letter (CRL) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its application to market Axanum, which combines aspirin with esomeprazole, the active ingredient in Nexium.

The delay for Axanum follows success with another Nexium line extension product, Vimovo, which won a green light from the FDA at the end of April. Vimovo, developed with Pozen, combines the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen and esomeprazole.

AstraZeneca faces another regulatory hurdle on Wednesday when an FDA expert panel meets to consider whether to approve its new infant lung drug motavizumab.

Winning over the panel may be tough, after FDA staff reported in briefing documents released last week that the drug carried a higher risk of causing severe allergic reactions than the company’s older product Synagis.

The loss of Nexium’s patent would definitely lower prices, as generic competition would not be far behind. One way or another, there is no reason sweat it’s approval, buy your drugs here at ePharmacies.com to save now!

According to a report released today on Fox News, burgers and fries were found to worsen asthma. Researchers found that patients with asthma who ate a high-fat meal had increased inflammation in their airways soon afterward, and did not respond as well to treatment as those who ate a low-fat meal.

The report went on to say,

results provide more evidence that environmental
factors, such as diet, can influence the development of asthma, which has increased dramatically in recent years in westernized countries where high-fat diets are common. In 2007, about 34.1 million Americans had asthma, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. From 1980 through 1994, the prevalence of asthma increased 75 percent. While the results are preliminary, they suggest cutting down on fat might be one way to help control asthma.

Asthma is a condition in which inflammation in the airways can lead to breathlessness, wheezing and coughing. Symptoms can irritated through a number of things from pet dander to air pollution. Currently, symptoms can be managed with prescription medication such as Accolate, Advair, Proventil, and Flovent, just to name a few.

The study had 40 asthmatic patients eat either a high-fat meal, consisting of burgers and hash browns, or a low-fat meal of yogurt. The high-fat meal was 1,000 calories (52 percent of calories from fat), and the low-fat meal was 200 calories (13 percent from fat).

The results showed that those who had eaten the burger meal had an increased number of immune cells called neutrophils in their airways. Neutrophils are a major factor in triggering inflammation.

The high-fat diet patients also showed less improvement in their lung function in response to the asthma medication Ventolin (generically known as albuterol) three to four hours after the meal.

Today the FDA reported that it was examining data from several different studies to determine if the risks with commonly used Hormone treatment for prostate cancer Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone. Recent findings hint that certain hormone treatments for men with prostate cancer pose greater risk for diabetes or heart trouble.

Products under investigation are: Lupron, Zoladex, Trelstar, Vantas, Eligard and Synarel.

According to Reuters, the agency said it has not made any conclusions about GnRH agonists but that patients should be monitored for potential onset of diabetes or cardiovascular disease that can result in heart attacks, stroke and sudden cardiac death.

Thousands of young children are accidentally poisoned by tobacco products each year in the U.S., and according to researchers, new dissolvable tobacco products that resemble candy might pose an even greater risk.

A new study of the reports from the United States poison control centers between 2006 and 2008 show that 13,705 children younger than 6 were accidentally poisoned by tobacco products. Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco were to blame for most of the incidents.

Babies and small children are extremely susceptible to nicotine, even as little as 1 milligram can cause nausea and vomiting. Larger doses could lead to weakness, convulsions or potentially fatal respiratory arrest.

According to the researchers, there is a new concern that a new dissolvable melt-in-your-mouth candy flavored nicotine pellets may pose an even greater risk.

he products are too new to have been behind any of the poisonings in the current study. However, Connolly and his colleagues did do a chemical analysis of one — Camel Orbs, tobacco pellets with a Tic-Tac-like appearance introduced last year by R.J. Reynolds.

The researchers found that the pellets contained a greater proportion of “free” nicotine than the norm for cigarettes or dipping tobacco.

Free nicotine is more quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, raising the possibility that it could more toxic to a child than other tobacco products are.

The Camel Orb packaging is said to be child-resistant; however, Connolly noted that the packaging is tricky enough that many users might prefer to dispense a number of pellets at a time, leaving some lying around.

He cautioned against doing that in any area where a young child might see them. One pellet contains about 1 mg of nicotine, so might cause nausea, Connolly said. “But if a child gets a few of them,” he added, “that could be very serious.”

In my opinion, parents should not be smoking around their children, and should definitely be responsible enough to make sure to keep it out of the reach of their children. My advice would be to talk with your doctor about your need to quit and see if he can prescribe you a drug such as Chantix or Zyban to help you kick the habit. You could also try a nicotine replacement option like: Commit lozenges, Nicorette patches, or Nicorette gum.

It hasn’t quite gotten to that point yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if dietary substances start being recommend to children. It seems far fetched, but who knows now a days?

I feel parents must step up to the plate and take responsibility for their child’s health. Instead of trying to find a quick fix in the form of a diet pill, they must teach them how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

The prevalence of childhood obesity is now at an all-time, but researchers are now finding out that the problem may be starting at an even earlier age than previously thought. Evidence shown in a report posted by the NY showed “pivotal events very early in life — during the toddler years, infancy and even before birth, in the womb — that can set young children on an obesity trajectory that is hard to alter by the time they’re in kindergarten.”

Some of the findings in the study:

The chubby cherub-like baby who is growing so nicely may be growing too much for his or her own good, research suggests.

Babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are at risk of becoming obese, even though the babies are usually small at birth.

Babies who sleep less than 12 hours are at increased risk for obesity later. If they don’t sleep enough and also watch two hours or more of TV a day, they are at even greater risk.

While prescription diet medications such as Alli and Xenical are not the way to get the childhood obesity problem under control, parents must step up and take responsibility for their child’s health before the problem spirals further out of control.

The Food and Drug Administration decided today to change the name of Kapidex in order to avoid confusion of the drug with several other drugs that have simular names.

Kapidex, a heartburn drug, has a similar name to the prostate cancer drug Casodex and the pain medication Kadian. The FDA said the confusion has resulted in multiple “dispensing errors” since the drug was approved early 2009.

The FDA Director of Surveillance and Epidemiology Dr. Gerald Dal Pan said, “Today’s near miss, today’s medication error that doesn’t cause harm to somebody could cause harm to someone tomorrow.”

The new name for Kapidex will be Dexilant, and is the first in a list of drugs the FDA plans to rename in order to remove any confusion and remedy dispensing errors.

A report from ABC.com talked about a woman from Canton, NC who had experienced a similar problem first hand. She was supposed to get a prescription of a anti-depressant prescribed as a sleeping aid, Trazodone, for her foster daughter. Instead, the pharmacy gave her something with the same first three letters – Tramadol, a pain killer.

Hopefully the renaming will cut down on the amount of prescribing errors. Remember to always double check your prescriptions to make sure that you are taking the correct medication and avoid a potential disaster.

Recently the FDA approved the blood pressure drug Benicar (olmesartan medoxomil) for use in children and adolescents 6 to 16 years of age. Benicar was originally approved in 2002 for the treatment of high blood pressure in adults.

According to stats from MSN,

Some 3.6 million children in the United States have high blood pressure, a number that’s risen in tandem with children’s weight, the company said in a news release. Obese children are three times more likely to have hypertension than non-obese kids, the firm added.

Hypertension is a growing issue in children and adolescence that must not be overlooked, but is throwing medicine at the problem really the answer this early on in life?

I believe that hypertension medication should be left as a last resort to treat high blood pressure in adults, and even more so in children. Parents should put their children on a good diet and exercise regime and remedy the problem/break the bad eating and health habits before they develop into a unhealthy lifestyle.

Hypertension medicine this early on in life will only mask the true problem, and may lead to even worse health later on down the road.

The FDA approved the medicine safe for children and adolescents with respect to how the medicine functions, but will allowing children to use hypertension medication be safe and beneficial for them in the long run?

What do you think?