Report: Pharmacies must do more to stop drug diversions
December 30th 2008A recent report by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud suggests pharmacies and pharmacy regulators need better training and education to help prevent prescription drug diversion, particularly of controlled substance analgesics.
UCSF investigators: Drug companies distort trial information
December 17th 2008A team of medical investigators at the University of California, San Francisco, has accused drug companies of bias by distorting the results of their trials in medical journals, which many doctors rely on to determine whether to prescribe new drugs.
FDA recalls unapproved devices
December 16th 2008The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently recalled two unapproved and uncleared devices whose manufacturers claimed could treat various medical conditions. The recall was a Class 1, which means there is a reasonable probability that the use of a device will cause adverse reactions, including death.
ASHP 08: Alternative medicine journals may be more valuable than commonly thought
December 9th 2008Pharmacists shouldn't be so quick to disregard articles published in alternative medicine journals because the medicine is new or more "mystic" than traditional medicine, according to a study presented by Zara Risoldi-Cochrane, PharmD, resident at the Center for Drug Information and Evidence-based Practice, School of Pharmacy & Health Professions, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska.
ASHP 08: New antihypertensive drugs' place in therapy not yet known
December 9th 2008The niches that aliskiren and nebivolol, two newly approved therapies for hypertension, will occupy in the therapeutic armamentarium for hypertension remain unknown until more outcomes data are obtained with these agents, said Stuart T. Haines, PharmD, BCPS, FASHP, professor, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, in his discussion of new and emerging therapies for hypertension.