Drug Search and News

Anti-obesity drug bites the dust

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:28:00 +0000

Los Angeles Times The search for anti-obesity drugs got a setback with Merck's announcement Thursday that the company has ended obesity research on its experimental drug taranabant. According to a statement from the company, though phase three results showed it did help people lose weight, it also had too many side effects. Here's the company's Oct. 2 statement.

Taranabant is a chemical that blocks a receptor in the brain that is activated by THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. (Readers may be aware that partaking of marijuana stimulates the appetite; conversely, blocking the brain receptor through which this effect occurs might be expected to have an anti-munchie effect.)

Fight against medical marijuana is on

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:08:00 +0000

Freep.com Calling it a “pot dream come true for drug dealers,” state law enforcement, medical professionals and antidrug coalitions have launched a campaign to shoot down Proposal 1, the medical marijuana initiative on the November ballot.

Cold Meds for Kids Back in the Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:27:00 +0000

The Washington Post -- After recommending earlier this year that children under the age of 2 not receive over-the-counter cold medicines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday is meeting with the public to help answer an even more important question: Should kids' cold medicines remain "OTC" at all?

The issue is not a new one for regulatory bodies or the public.

In January, the FDA issued an updated health advisory recommending that over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold preparations not be used to treat children under the age of 2 due to the possibility of life-threatening complications. These products include decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines and cough suppressants.

Merck pulls plug on obesity drug

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Triangle Business Journal Merck & Co. Inc. said Thursday it will not seek regulatory approval for Taranabant, an investigational medicine to treat obesity.

The pharmaceutical giant, which makes vaccines at a plant in Durham, has discontinued its clinical development program for the drug.

“Available phase-III data showed that both efficacy and adverse events were dose related, with greater efficacy and more adverse events in the higher doses,” said Dr. John Amatruda, senior vice president and research head of diabetes and obesity at Merck Research Laboratories.

Estrogen Patch May Lower Heart Attack Risk in Older Women

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:52:00 +0000

Medpage Today COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 1 -- Use of estrogen patches or vaginal application of topical estrogen may lower the risk of myocardial infarction associated with hormone therapy, researchers here reported.

Vitamin C may blunt effect of chemotherapy: study

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:10:00 +0000

Yahoo News WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vitamin C supplements may undercut the effectiveness of cancer drugs including Novartis' Gleevec, a U.S. study published on Wednesday showed.

When used on human cancer cells treated with a form of vitamin C in lab dishes, chemotherapy drugs killed 30 percent to 70 percent fewer tumor cells than usual, the scientists wrote in the journal Cancer Research.

Blood Thinner Linked to Increased Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:38:00 +0000

MONDAY, Sept. 29 (HealthDay News ) -- The amount of bleeding in the brain that occurs when a blood vessel bursts and causes a stroke is greater for some people who take the clot-preventing drug warfarin (Coumadin), a new study shows.

It's not a surprising finding, said Dr. Daniel Woo, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Cincinnati and co-author of the report in the Sept. 30 issue of Neurology, since it's long been established that the risk of death from such a stroke is greater for people taking warfarin.

Glucosamine and chondroitin don't slow arthritis

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:36:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters ) - Two hugely popular supplements used to fight arthritis and joint pain, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, do not seem to work any better than placebo to slow the loss of knee cartilage in osteoarthritis, researchers reported on Monday.

But the researchers said some of their findings were confusing and said more study was needed.

Anemia drug Eprex linked to higher risk of death

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:16:00 +0000

(foodconsumer.org) --The Food and Drug Administration on Sep 26 posted a page on its website acknowledging the agency is aware that a higher rate of deaths among stroke patients treated with an anemia drug made by Johnson & Johnson was found in a German study.

The rate of deaths among those who received the drug Eprex were 78 percent higher than that for those who took a placebo, 16 percent of deaths versus 9 percent, the FDA said.

The study was meant to determine whether Eprex could improve brain function in stroke patients. Instead the study found that more non-anemic patients on the anemia drug died than those on the placebo.

Gardasil Approved for Additional Uses

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:18:00 +0000

Gardasil, the vaccine used to guard against cervical cancer, has been approved for similar use against two more gynecological malignancies.

According to theAssociated Press, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the drug, manufactured by Merck Pharmaceuticals, to guard against cancers that attack the vagina and vulva.

Statistics Smackdown: Experts Duel Over Vytorin Cancer Data

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:15:00 +0000

wsj.com The Oxford stats guru who said Vytorin doesn’t increase the risk of cancer in the face of some data raising that possibility has sent a sharply worded response to questions from a couple of congressman looking into the issue.

Sir Richard Peto’s letter (online here) says that “any competent trial statistician would endorse” his conclusion that there’s “no credible evidence” that the cholesterol drug is tied to increased cancer risk.

Centocor says psoriasis drug superior to Enbrel in study

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Bizjournals.com Centocor Inc. said Thursday that its experimental psoriasis drug ustekinumab was more effective in treating patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis than Enbrel, a leading biological treatment for the skin disease.

Centocor cited results from a head-to-head study involving 903 participants. A higher percentage of patients treated with the Centocor drug experienced the desired reduction in psoriasis, the company said. Ustekinumab would not have to be injected as frequently as Enbrel: once every 12 weeks compared to weekly.

Prednisolone and Naproxen Both Work for Pain Relief in Acute Gout

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:32:00 +0000

Dr. George Lundberg discusses prescribing prednisolone and naproxen for pain relief in acute gout.

Return To Life, Some Minimally Conscious People Are Actually Re-Awakening Thanks To Drug Therapies

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:58:00 +0000

CBS News: "Other Ambien 'awakenings' have been reported around the world, and the medical community is taking notice.

There are several clinical trials of Ambien underway, but progress is slow, in part because minimally conscious people are scattered around the country in homes and nursing facilities, often far from research centers."

High levels of toxic metals found in Ayurvedic medicines

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:43:00 +0000

High levels of toxic metals found in Ayurvedic medicines: "The scientists at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) ordered Ayurvedic medicines from 25 web sites and tested them for metallic poisons.
The Ayurvedic medicines were manufactured in both the U.S. and India and the researchers found that one fifth of them contained lead, mercury or arsenic."

Drug Lucentis to save eyesight of thousands in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:41:00 +0000

Drug Lucentis to save eyesight of thousands in the UK: "The drug Lucentis has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 50.
A campaign led by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) on behalf of those with AMD has prompted a turn around on draft guidance published last year by NICE which decreed that patients would need to lose sight in one eye before the other could"

Scientists Identify New Drug Target Against Virulent Type Of Breast Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:01:00 +0000

Scientists Identify New Drug Target Against Virulent Type Of Breast Cancer:

"The drugs Herceptin and Lapatinib, prescribed in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents, have improved this picture significantly, but leave plenty of room for improvement: they suppress ErbB2 but are effective against less than half of ErbB2-producing tumors. Moreover, patients with tumors that do respond usually develop resistance to these drugs.
A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has just published research identifying an enzyme called Brk that may serve as a target for future drugs developed to fight ErbB2-positive tumors. Brk, they report, helps these tumors become virulent and is also implicated in the process through which the tumors develop drug resistance."

Trends In Prescription Medication Sharing Among Reproductive-aged Women

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Trends In Prescription Medication Sharing Among Reproductive-aged Women: "Borrowing and sharing of prescription medications is a serious medical and public health concern. A survey of nearly 7,500 women of reproductive age found that this is common practice among more than one-third of this population, according to a report published online ahead of print in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc."

Anti-cancer Flower Power: Researchers Combat Cancer With A Jasmine-based Drug

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:58:00 +0000

Anti-cancer Flower Power: Researchers Combat Cancer With A Jasmine-based Drug: "Could a substance from the jasmine flower hold the key to an effective new therapy to treat cancer?"

Prof. Eliezer Flescher of The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University thinks so. He and his colleagues have developed an anti-cancer drug based on a decade of research into the commercial applications of the compound Jasmonate, a synthetic compound derived from the flower itself. Prof. Flescher began to research the compound about a decade ago, and with his recent development of the drug, his studies have now begun to bear meaningful fruit.

Why a common treatment for prostate cancer ultimately fails

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:56:00 +0000

Why a common treatment for prostate cancer ultimately fails: "Some of the drugs given to many men during their fight against prostate cancer can actually spur some cancer cells to grow, researchers have found. The findings were published online this week in a pair of papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The role of vitamin D for obese patients in reversing the type 2 diabetes pandemic

noreply@blogger.com (Anton Small) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:37:00 +0000

The role of vitamin D for obese patients in reversing the type 2 diabetes pandemic: "Could vitamin D supplementation also decelerate the epidemic of type 2 diabetes?
Presumably, due to sequestration of vitamin D in adipose tissue, obesity is associated with low vitamin D levels and low vitamin D levels have been associated with both insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction"

FDA investigates possible Vytorin link to cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:32:00 +0000

FDA investigates possible Vytorin link to cancer: "Vytorin, a combination of Merck's Zocor and Schering-Plough's Zetia, has been heavily promoted as a novel way to reduce cholesterol. Zocor, a statin drug, reduces the amount of cholesterol produced by the liver. Zetia limits the amount of cholesterol absorbed through the digestive system. But the combination became a focus of controversy after a study earlier this year showed it was no better at reducing the buildup of plaque in the arteries than the much cheaper generic, Zocor.

Sun-Sensitive Drugs (Photosensitivity to Drugs) List, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:31:00 +0000

MedicineNet.com: "Photosensitivity (or sun sensitivity) is inflammation of the skin induced by the combination of sunlight and certain medications or substances. This causes redness (erythema) of the skin and may look similar to sunburn.
Generally, these reactions can be divided into two mechanisms, 1) phototoxic reactions and 2) photoallergic reactions. Phototoxic drugs are much more common than photoallergic drugs."

Effects of Hormone Replacement Therapy on sleep and sex - Sunday Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:30:00 +0000

Effects of HRT on sleep and sex - Sunday Journal: "Benefits of HRT justify a rethink” is the headline in The Times. A recent study of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has shown that women “showed significantly fewer hot flushes, night sweats, aching joints and muscles, insomnia and vaginal dryness than those given a placebo”, the newspaper says. The researchers suggest that current guideline advice based on other research showing that HRT could increase the risk of serious diseases including breast cancer, coronary heart disease and blood clot"

Drug Stops Bone Loss From Breast Cancer Chemo

noreply@blogger.com (Meister) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Drug Stops Bone Loss From Breast Cancer Chemo: "Zometa (zoledronic acid) prevented bone loss at 12 months in premenopausal women undergoing chemotherapy after they had surgery for early stage breast cancer, a new study found.
The multicenter, phase III study is the first to evaluate the use of zoledronic acid in premenopausal breast cancer patients. The 101 women (85 completed the study) were divided into two groups that received either zoledronic acid or a placebo every three months for one year. All the women were given oral vitamin D and calcium supplements."