News tagged with 'Drug Products'

Merck and Schering-Plough agreed on Wednesday to pay $41.5 million to settle class-action lawsuits filed by patients taking the cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia.

The Division of Drug Information (DDI), a branch of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is utilizing the power of Twitter to inform consumers, health care providers and the industry about information regarding human drug products and drug product regulation.

New recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggest low doses of aspirin daily are just as effective as higher doses and safer at preventing a first heart attack in men and first stroke in women.

Taking a once-daily dose of aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may help to lower the risk of developing polyps that can lead to colorectal cancer.

A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against Amgen Inc., alleging illegal promotion of two anemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen, saying the case should have been made to regulators not federal court.

FDA Commissioner, Dr. Andrew Eschenbach will resign his post January 20 to make way for a new FDA head, yet unnamed. On the short list are a vocal critics of child cold medications and a critic of the pharmaceutical industry.  Eschanbach had made some progress in beefing up the agency in his last year there.

New research in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms the growing dangers posed by the abuse of prescription painkillers and calls on clinicians to help prevent future cases of addiction and overdose.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends all patients 13 and older be screened routinely for the HIV virus, whether or not they have engaged in risky behavior.

20 years after the World Health Organization declared the first World AIDS Day, there are still 33 million with the disease around the world. In the developing nations, getting needed medications to pregnant women so they don't transmit the virus to their children, is a huge stumbling block.

The Wisconsin Medical Society has joined a growing number of professional societies, academic medical centers and legislators that agree physician gifts from the pharmaceutical industry are questionable, if not unacceptable forms of influence.

The brain neurotransmitter, dopamine, may have a link to obesity.  In this study, researchers found that cells in the brain released dopamine when participants consumed a pleasant meal, registering a feeling of pleasure that you are full.   So blame being overweight on sluggish dopamine receptors. 

A lawsuit was filed against Pfizer alleging the company suppressed medical studies that did not support the company's campaign to boost sales of its epilepsy drug, Neurontin.

LabCorp has been issued a warning letter by the FDA for illegally marketing a drug test to detect ovarian cancer. First introduced in June, the test promises to detect ovarian cancer in early stages, when it is still treatable.

What Does FDA Approval Mean?  While that promise has traditionally meant an assurance of safety, the FDA is having a difficult time keeping up with its responsibilities. At the same time, "FDA approved" is increasingly being used to strip consumers of their right to take defective products to court.

Depression is three times more common following a heart attack than among the general population and routine screening for depression is now recommended by the American Heart Association. In a vicious cycle, the more depressed- the more likely another heart attack will follow.