Drug News
Antidepressant Use May Boost Fracture Risk
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Evidence is accumulating that depression is a risk factor for osteoporosis, reports the June 2007 issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. A recent study found that people ages 50 and over who regularly took antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) had double the rate of fractures as people not using such medications. Other research points to depression itself as a source of endocrine changes that can damage bone.
Whether the danger comes from depression, the drugs used to treat it, or something else, doctors are paying more attention to this association. During the 1990s, depression began to emerge as a possible cause of bone loss, rather than a result.
Efficacy and safety of Aripiprazole as adjunctive therapy in major depressive disorder
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In adults with major depressive disorder, adding aripiprazole to antidepressant therapy (ADT) resulted in significant improvement in the primary endpoint, the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) Total Score. In this six-week, randomized, placebo-controlled study presented here at the 160th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. atypical antipsychotic aripiprazole was added to antidepressants in patients who did not have an adequate response to ADT alone. (1)(Berman, 2007, APA Poster)
These findings are from one of two completed studies evaluating adjunctive aripiprazole with ADT.
Roche aims to make Avastin more affordable in UK
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Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG launched blockbuster drug bevacizumab (Avastin) for breast cancer in Britain on Thursday and said it was working on ways to make the costly medicine more affordable.
Avastin was originally developed for colorectal cancer, but it has also proved effective in treating metastatic breast cancer when given alongside chemotherapy.
Tamiflu data show very low resistance: Roche
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Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche Holding AG said on Wednesday new data showed patients using its anti-flu drug Tamiflu rarely developed resistance to it.
The data, published by the United Nations’ World Health Organisation, showed resistance of around 0.3 percent to Tamiflu, also called oseltamivir, during the influenza seasons in which there had been substantial Tamiflu use in Japan.
Aspirin doesn’t preserve older women’s memory
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Among healthy older women, low-dose aspirin does little to prevent or delay mental decline over the following decade, according to analysis of data from the Women’s Health Study.
“Because aspirin protects cardiovascular health, we thought it would also protect against cognitive decline,” Dr. Jae Hee Kang from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital told Reuters Health. But trials to establish this association have yielded inconsistent results.
New Hope for Antibiotic Resistance
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A surprising new theory developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska, suggests that some bacterial cells act as “suicide bombers” in cell communities, with the altruistic intention of dying for the common good – and in the process, strengthening other cells that then become resistant to antibiotic drugs.
The finding could aid future research into developing drugs that can skirt the potentially catastrophic problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
Are Higher Doses of Cholesterol Drugs Worth the Extra Money?
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When it comes to cholesterol-lowering drugs, more is better. At least, that’s what heart doctors and heart patients have been hearing in recent years. And as a result, more patients are taking higher doses of drugs called statins – leading to lower heart and stroke risk, but higher prescription drug costs and more frequent side effects.
Now, a new study looks at whether those higher doses, and higher costs, are really going to pay off for some patients. For those with a recent heart attack or what doctors call ‘acute coronary syndrome’, the answer is yes, the researchers say.
Only one drug type now knocks out gonorrhea in US
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Due to drug resistance, one class of antibiotics should no longer be used to treat gonorrhea, officials with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday.
They no longer recommend antibiotics called fluoroquinolones—which include ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and levofloxacin—for treatment of gonorrhea because fluoroquinolone-resistant gonorrhea is now widespread in the United States.
Consumer group says Celebrex ad downplays risks
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A consumer group accused Pfizer Inc. on Monday of downplaying safety differences between its Celebrex medicine and other painkillers in a new advertisement and said U.S. regulators should ask that the ad be pulled.
Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, began running television spots for Celebrex last week, after a more than two-year hiatus. Pfizer had stopped advertising for the arthritis drug after Merck & Co. Inc.‘s rival drug Vioxx was withdrawn from the market. Vioxx was linked to an elevated risk of heart attack and stroke in long-term users.
Aspirin underutilized for heart attack prevention
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Although it’s well known that taking aspirin regularly can lower a person’s risk of heart disease, few Americans, it seems, use the common pain reliever for heart health.
A new study finds that use of aspirin for the prevention of a first or second heart attack or stroke is very low, even among adults at increased risk for such events.
Merck gains on US approval for combo diabetes pill
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Shares of Merck & Co. rose on Monday after the company won U.S. marketing approval for Janumet, which combines its recently introduced Januvia diabetes drug in the same tablet with the widely used metformin treatment.
Merck was up 74 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $44.91, in midday trade on the New York Stock Exchange, amid slight gains for the drug sector.
Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britain’s garden centres
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A chance discovery by a Berkshire allotment-holder that a plant widely available in garden centres has the same effect on men as Viagra has been confirmed by experts at one of the world’s leading botanical institutions.
The plant is winter-flowering heather, and botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, many of them heather experts who have recognised the source of its active ingredient, now expect it to be the next must-have plant in British gardens. Demand is already high. Nurseries and garden centres in some areas are having trouble finding sufficient supplies as word spreads of the plant’s unexpected properties.
“Weekender” Cialis promises China marital bliss
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Eli Lilly & Co., maker of impotence drug Cialis, hopes that Chinese couples who might resort to traditional aphrodisiacs or divorce court to resolve sexual problems will seek marital bliss with its own remedy.
The U.S. drugmaker launched a marketing campaign for Cialis in the world’s most populous country on Thursday with the release of a survey showing that 45 percent of middle-aged Chinese couples had experienced erectile dysfunction problems.
Aspirin Resistance Is Higher in Diabetics
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Aspirin has long been the industry standard for the prevention and treatment of heart attacks. However, for the more than 20 million Americans living with diabetes, the standard dose of aspirin might not provide adequate protection against future heart attacks. Researchers at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore recently demonstrated that aspirin resistance is higher in diabetics with coronary artery disease (CAD) than in non-diabetics at the standard 81mg dose of aspirin. The study (#1019-179) will be presented in its entirety at the 56th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in New Orleans on March 26.
Most CAD deaths are caused by platelets sticking together and forming blood clots (thrombosis) that block blood flow within arteries, resulting in a heart attack. Aspirin inhibits clotting by specifically blocking an important enzyme, COX-1, which keeps platelets from sticking together. However, some diabetic patients may require a higher aspirin dose to achieve sufficient COX-1 blockade.
WHO says Tamiflu concerns not affecting stockpiling
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Concerns about the safety of Tamiflu are not affecting stockpiles of an influenza drug, which would be used in a potential pandemic, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman said.
Health officials widely see Tamiflu as effective in treating the H5N1 bird flu strain if given early enough.
