In patients with opioid dependence, buprenorphine and naloxone (Zubsolv, Orexo) sublingual tablet (CIII) demonstrated comparable patient retention in treatment at days 3 and 15 versus generic buprenorphine and Suboxone film respectively, according to data presented at the 25th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) in Aventura, Fla.
FDA has approved blinatumomab (Blincyto, Amgen) immunotherapy for the treatment of relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome-negative precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
This year, the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions were held in Chicago, Illinois, from November 15 to 19. Of all of the late-breaking clinical trials presented at AHA 2014, the IMPROVE-IT (IMProved Reduction of Outcomes: Vytorin Efficacy International Trial) study of Merck’s low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)-reducing drugs-the statin, Zocor (simvastatin), and the fixed-dose combination, Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin)-stole the show.
Investigational, oral proteasome inhibitor, ixazomib (MLN9708, Takeda) has FDA has granted breakthrough therapy status for the treatment of relapsed or refractory systemic light-chain (AL) amyloidosis. This is the first proteasome inhibitor and first investigational therapy for AL amyloidosis to receive breakthrough therapy designation.
While pharmaceutical manufacturer AbbVie’s new hepatitis C drug has not yet been approved by FDA, pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts has expressed interest in switching to the drug in its preferred drug formulary.
The costs of developing new prescription drugs have soared 145% since 2003, according to a new study from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.
The first experimental Ebola vaccine has been shown to be safe and prompt an immune response in results from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) phase 1 clinical trial. The vaccine produced immune system responses and was well tolerated in the whole study cohort of 20 healthy adults.
Following a priority review designation, FDA has approved rifapentine (Priftin, Sanofi) in combination with isoniazid (INH) for a new indication for the treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in patients aged 2 years and older at high risk of progression to tuberculosis (TB) disease.
Once-daily rivaroxaban (Xartelto, Janssen) is associated with significantly fewer hospitalization days and outpatient visits compared to warfarin in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), according to data presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2014 Scientific Sessions in Chicago.
In new guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that countries significantly expand access to naloxone to help manage opioid overdoses.
Prolonged use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) may disrupt the makeup of bacteria in the digestive system, potentially raising the risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), according to a study published in Microbiome.
FDA is warning that a patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) who was being treated with Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and serious brain infection, and later died. As a result, information describing this case of PML is being added to the Tecfidera drug label.
There’s no hiding that hospital pharmacies have long been considered cost centers for healthcare systems. That positioning has been accentuated over the past 5 years, as the healthcare industry has seen a steady increase in high-cost, brand-name specialty medications that range from hundreds to thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars per dose. Nearly every hospital, however, has untapped opportunities to substantially improve efficiencies and improve costs. One important factor is improving how these hospitals use generic medications.
Melanoma, an aggressive disease with a rapidly rising incidence rate, presents the oncology field with some of its greatest challenges and opportunities. Long considered one of the most difficult diseases to treat with pharmacotherapy, drug development within melanoma has lagged behind that of many other cancers, culminating in decades of limited progress. Developments in molecular biology, however, have led to an increased understanding of the molecular heterogeneity of melanoma in recent years, which has resulted in new insights into the roles of oncogenes, signaling pathways, immune checkpoints, and tumor-promoting events, accelerating the rate of discovery of therapeutic targets.
Adding tumor treating fields (TTFields) therapy to temozolomide significantly increases progression-free survival (PFS) for newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients versus giving temozolomide alone, according to data presented at 2014 Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Annual Meeting, in Miami.
An extended-release (ER) opioid analgesic, hydrocodone bitartrate (Hysingla ER, Purdue Pharma) has been approved by FDA for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, 24-hour, long-term opioid treatment. Alternative treatment options must also have been found to be inadequate.
Treating skin cancer is having a major impact on the US healthcare system. The costs associated with skin cancer increased 5 times as fast as treatments for other cancers between 2002 and 2011, according to a Centers for Disease Control study published November 9 online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Physicians debated the benefits versus the risks of aspirin for cardiovascular events in an editorial published in JAMA online November 17.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers got a better idea of the value of FDA’s Priority Review Vouchers (PRVs) recently after Gilead Sciences paid $125 million in cash for Knight Therapeutics’ Neglected Tropical Disease PRV.
Data from 2 phase 3 studies of lesinurad in combination with allopurinol in gout patients was presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2014 annual meeting in Boston.
Myalept (metreleptin) is a leptin analogue with the same physiologic effects as leptin.11 Metreleptin was granted a priority review and was FDA approved on February 25, 2014, as an adjunct to diet as replacement therapy to treat the complications of leptin deficiency in patients with congenital or acquired lipodystrophy.
FDA announced that it will review results from a clinical trial showing that long-term dual antiplatelet therapy decreased the risk of heart attacks and clot formation in stents, but there was an increased overall risk of death compared to 12 months of treatment.
Investigational drug LCZ696 (Novartis), an angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), is superior to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor alone in reducing the risks of death and of hospitalization for heart failure, according to data presented at the American Heart Association's (AHA) Scientific Sessions in Chicago.
It may come as a surprise that each year Americans catch approximately 1 billion colds, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 20% get the flu. This cold and flu season, 7 in 10 patients will reach for an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine to treat their coughs, stuffy noses, and sniffles. It’s an important time of the year to remind patients to double check their medicine labels so they don’t double up on medicines containing acetaminophen.
