Drug News
Drug combo could stretch Tamiflu supplies - doctors
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Scarce supplies of Tamiflu, which is being stockpiled by governments in case of an influenza pandemic, could be stretched by giving it with another drug, doctors said on Tuesday.
Governments have been advised to stock up on Tamiflu, a prescribed drug for seasonal flu, because it will be a first line of defence if the H5N1 bird flu circulating in Asia and reported in other areas mutates into a human pandemic strain.
Tamiflu Maker Stops Shipping to Private Sellers
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Amid worries about bird flu, demand for a flu medicine is so extreme that the drug’s maker has stopped shipping it to private U.S. suppliers just as consumers fret over whether they should try to stock up on the drug.
Tamiflu, a prescription drug designed to treat regular flu, is becoming scarce because of worries the bird flu in Asia might morph into a contagious human flu that circles the globe.
Generic Drug Makers May Get a Boost in Market
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This has been a lackluster year for the stocks of generic drug makers, but that’s about to change.
In the next five years, drugs representing more than $100 billion in U.S. sales will lose patent protection. A generic drug may be sold once the original manufacturer’s patent expires. The first company to market a generic equivalent typically gets six months’ sales exclusivity.
The drug maker in the best position to benefit from these changes is an Israeli company called Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Founded in Jerusalem 104 years ago to distribute imported drugs, Teva is now the largest seller of generic pharmaceuticals in the United States, with a 13 percent market share.
EBay stops Tamiflu sale on Web as drug price soars
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Internet auction site eBay pulled the sale of Roche Holding AG’s flu drug Tamiflu from its Web site on Tuesday, after prices topped 100 pounds on growing fears about the spread of bird flu.
A spokeswoman for eBay said the auction had been stopped because the sale of prescription drugs was not allowed under the company’s rules.
Medicare Elimination of Essential Drugs Will Affect Elderly
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On Jan. 1, 2006, several categories of medications will be explicitly excluded from Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit, including benzodiazepines, which are listed as an “essential medication” with the World Health Organization. Stephen Soumerai, professor of ambulatory care and prevention in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care) published a paper that details the impact this removal will have on society.
Currently, 24 percent of the elderly on Medicare, or 1.7 million people, will lose this coverage completely. The paper reports that negative effects are likely to take place, including withdrawal reactions, seizures, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions because the Medicare patients will not be able to afford these sometimes essential drugs.
South Africa rushes to register bird flu drug
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South Africa will fast-track registration of the antiviral avian flu drug Tamiflu to prepare for any outbreak of the potentially fatal virus, the Health Department said on Friday.
“We are in the process of registering the drug… we have some stocks but we cannot stockpile it until it has been registered,” department spokesman Solly Mabotha said.
Roche outsources some stages of Tamiflu production
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Roche Holding AG, the Swiss company that produces the most effective antiviral drug available for avian flu, is outsourcing some stages of its production but would not surrender patents on it.
The Swiss firm is under pressure to increase production of the antiviral treatment Tamiflu amid fears of a shortage in the event of a bird flu pandemic.
Drug Can Reduce Risk of Death, Heart Attack, and Stroke in Diabetes Patients
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A Diabetes drug called pioglitazone can reduce the risk of death, heart attack, and stroke in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes, concludes an article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.
Patients with diabetes have a two to four-fold increased risk of a cardiovascular event compared with non-diabetics. Until now there has only been indirect evidence suggesting that pioglitazone could reduce cardiovascular-related deaths and illness in diabetics.
HPV Vaccine Gets High Marks in Trial
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An investigational vaccine aimed at cervical cancer has proved 100% effective against cervical pre-malignant lesions associated with the most prevalent strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV), according to researchers here.
Results of the Phase III study of Merck’s quadrivalent recombinant vaccine, known as Gardisil, are to be presented Friday at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting here.
Genome to get U.S. govt anthrax drug deal
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Human Genome Sciences Inc. plans to announce a deal with the U.S. government on Monday to provide as many as 100,000 doses of an experimental anthrax drug, the Washington Post reported.
The Rockville, Maryland-based company will sell the government a third of an ounce of the drug for $1.8 million, an amount sufficient for government testers to compare the product with competitors, the paper said.
U.S. FDA approves NDA for type 2 diabetes drug
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Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., (TPNA) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the New Drug Application (NDA) for Actoplus met for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
This is the second Takeda product approved in the U.S. this summer, following the approval of Rozerem (ramelteon) on July 22, 2005.
Actoplus met combines Actos (pioglitazone HCl) and metformin, two widely used diabetes medications, in a single tablet. Actos directly targets insulin resistance, a condition where the body does not efficiently use the insulin it produces, and metformin acts primarily by reducing the amount of glucose produced by the liver. These medications work in combination to help patients with type 2 diabetes manage their blood glucose levels.
Lilly to add suicide risk warning to Strattera
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Eli Lilly and Co. on Thursday said it will add strong warnings to its label for Strattera, used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, including the risk of suicidal thoughts among children and adolescents.
Strattera will now carry a “black box” warning, the strongest required by U.S. regulators. Such warnings typically hurt sales of products by raising concern among doctors and patients about the safety of a drug.
China vows to cut drug prices to appease angry public
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China said on Wednesday it would lower the retail prices of 22 kinds of medicine as a means of reeling in some of the soaring costs of health care sparking social discontent across the country.
The failure of health reforms and rising costs of medical care have become flash points for social anger and unrest in China, where hundreds of millions of people cannot afford to see doctors or get medicine.
Glaxo adds birth defect caution to Paxil label
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GlaxoSmithKline Plc is alerting physicians about a study suggesting the company’s antidepressant Paxil may be linked more often to birth defects than similar drugs, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday.
The British drug maker, in a letter to physicians, said it was adding the information to the prescribing instructions on Paxil’s label. Glaxo said it was difficult to tell if Paxil caused the defects, most of which were cardiovascular, in infants born to women who took the drug while pregnant.
‘Statin’ drugs reduce fracture risk in men
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Men who take a cholesterol-lowering ‘statin’ drug (such as Lipitor or Zocor, for example) may be protecting more than their heart. A large study comprised mostly of elderly men shows that the drugs reduce the risk of suffering a bone fracture.
Previous research investigating the link between statins and fracture risk, conducted primarily among women, has yielded mixed results.
