Pharmacology

The use of novel psychoactive substances, synthetic compounds with stimulant or hallucinogenic effects, is on the rise and the diversity and breadth of these substances - a change in one atom means an illegal drug is no longer illegal - has led policymakers, law enforcement officers, and healthcare providers to feel overwhelmed.  A recent review has led to proposing a "forecasting method" for policymakers and researchers to focus on what is likely to happen with new recreational drugs. Dr. John Stogner of UNC Charlotte says a five step forecasting method will rely on the availability of…

The new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine, can potentially prevent 80 percent of cervical cancers in the United States if given to all 11- or 12-year-old children before they are exposed to the virus, according to a seven-center study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.  In addition to protecting against 80 percent of cervical cancers, the new 9-Valent human papillomavirus vaccine, which includes seven cancer causing HPV-types - 16,18,31,33,45,52 and 58 - has the potential to protect against nearly 19,000 other cancers diagnosed in the United States, including…

Generic drugs are the same as a name brand. The only difference is that a generic company does not research or clinical trials and since the product is outside patent, they only have the cost of manufacturing, so costs are lower and the product is cheaper. Yet we are increasingly in a precautionary principle world, in everything from vaccines to food, so it is little surprise that patients prefer name brand drugs more. Though large pharmaceutical companies are being attacked in a culture war, they are still considered more trustworthy than a generic, which most people equate with lower…

There is always interest in exploring new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, because existing medications are probably generic, and therefore less expensive because generic companies don't have to do any creative science or fund clinical trials, and popular drugs already have known side effect profiles. For that reason, Chris Cardwell, PhD, a senior lecturer in medical statistics at the Centre for Public Health at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland and colleagues investigated whether lung cancer patients who received statins had improved cancer outcomes. They used data from…

Urinary tract infections are common and wide-spread antibiotic resistance has led to calls for new ways to combat these infections. A recent paper details  an experimental drug that stabilizes the human immune defense protein HIF-1α can protect human bladder cells and mice against a major UTI pathogen, and it might provide a therapeutic alternative or complement to antibiotic treatment. HIF-1α is known to play a key role in modulating the innate (non-specific) immune response, which is the body's first line of defense against intruding pathogens. Like many regulator proteins, HIF-1α is…

I really need to quit starting all of these things with "just when you think..." because I'm starting to sound like a cliche. But sometimes, there are just no alternatives. My apologies. Because just when you think things can't get any (stranger, dumber, crazier...) something like this comes around. I seriously doubt I will need to use the cliche again. This cannot be topped. It's impossible. Just like the "science" that is behind it. At least there some good news: The vegans in Britain are sure gonna be happy, since the country won't be eating much meat. Thanks to a bunch of fine minds…

The investigational anti-cancer agent rociletinib (CO-1686) has received the new FDA 'Breakthrough Status' designation, developed to accelerate the approval process for very promising new medical treatments. For a new study, patients were initially given free base and later hydrogen bromide salt formulations of the drug rociletinib in ongoing 21-day cycles. The hydrogen bromide salt produced better absorption and higher drug exposure in patients and was adopted as the sole form moving forward. The New England Journal of Medicine reports results of a phase I/II study of rociletinib in…

What happens when a patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) who is clinically stable stops taking their medication? An international, multi-site study found almost 40 percent of patients had some disease activity return after they stopped, according to research presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting last week. "Despite long periods of disease stability while taking medication, we found a large minority of patients who stopped experienced relapses or disability progression," says lead study author Ilya Kister, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at the NYU Langone…

A new study shows an "alarming rise" in the costs of drugs used to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) or reduce the frequency of attacks over the last 20 years. Yet this increase occurred even as there was a substantial increase in the number of MS drugs in the marketplace, which would ordinarily lead to lower or stabilized costs for patients who use those drugs, especially for first-generation therapies. The costs of MS drugs accelerated at rates 5X to 7X higher than prescription drug inflation and substantially higher than rates for drugs in a similar class between 1993 and…

Researchers have identified a single, simple metric to guide antibiotic dosing that could bring an entire arsenal of first-line antibiotics back into the fight against drug-resistant pathogens. A computer simulation created by Hannah Meredith, a biomedical engineering graduate fellow at Duke University, revealed that a regimen based on a pathogen's recovery time could eliminate an otherwise resistant strain of bacteria. In theory, a database of recovery times for bacterial and antibiotic combinations could allow first-line antibiotics to clear many resistant infections. Work to create such a…