Archive for the 'Products' Category

European Regulators Take Action to Improve Public Information Access

Fedra Pavlou PharmTech Europe editorIn a news release issued by the European Organisation for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS) this week, the society commended the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) in its efforts to make the information that it has available on medicines more patient-friendly. Read more »

Recent Announcements in Anticounterfeiting Technology

Alexis Brekke Pellek PharmTech editorThis week, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and
Associations (EFPIA) launched a two-month pilot project in Sweden designed to test a serialization and verification system in pharmacies that would fight counterfeit drugs. Read more »

Report: Online Drug Brand Abuse on the Rise

Alexis Brekke Pellek PharmTech editorPharmaceutical brands face an increased threat online, according to a new report by the brand-protection firm MarkMonitor. The study, Brandjacking Index: Summer 2009, focused on six leading drug brands and examined these key areas of pharmaceutical brand abuse online: illicit pharmacies, listings on B2B exchange sites, and cybersquatting, or the abuse of a trademark within a domain name. Read more »

Pharma Celebrates its Own

Michelle Hoffman PharmTech editorFall is upon us and so is the awards season. And I’m not talking about the Emmy’s (although kudos to Mad Men). Earlier this month the Lasker Foundation gave out its Basic Medical Research Award, its Lasker-deBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service (see the Lasker Foundation website for more information). Next week the Nobel Committee will announce its award winners.

But last night belonged to the Pharmaceutical Industry. Read more »

NIAID Announces “Encouraging” Early Results of H1N1 Vaccine in Children

Alexis Brekke Pellek PharmTech editorFollowing up on last week’s post, it appears that the H1N1 flu vaccine is effective in older children, ages 10 to 17, based on preliminary results of an ongoing trial. This week, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, announced that early results of clinical studies of the vaccine “look promising.” Read more »

H1N1 Vaccine Trial Data Still Needed for High-Risk Groups

Alexis Brekke Pellek PharmTech editorThe US Food and Drug Administration approved on Tuesday four H1N1 flu vaccines that demonstrated in clinical studies that a single dose produced a strong immune response in healthy adults after 8–10 days. Based on the manufacturers’ production schedules, things seem to be on track for vaccines to be available in four weeks.

But clinical trials of the vaccine are still underway on pregnant women and children, two groups that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says are especially vulnerable to the H1N1 flu. Read more »

FDA’s Recent Actions Against Illegal Prescription Drug Flow

Alexis Brekke Pellek PharmTech editorLast month, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced the agency’s six-point plan for tougher enforcement of its policies and regulations as means of protecting public health. The plan, which includes actions like setting postinspection deadlines, speeding the Warning Letter process, and working more closely with FDA’s regulatory partners, was designed to “to prevent harm to the American people,” as Hamburg said in an FDA release. 

The agency has been actively involved in several recent cases involving instances of illegal importation and sales, drug diversion, and misbranding of drug products. Read more »

Can Insurance Companies Help Improve Health?

Angie Drakulich PharmTech editorUnitedHealth Group, a Minneapolis-based healthcare company, recently announced that it would soon provide a price break to members who correctly use certain asthma and antidepressant drugs. The news was reported in a Wall Street Journal article by Peter Loftus of Dow Jones Newswires.  

To get the $20 copay discount, members must refill their prescriptions within about 30 days after their last prescription runs out. Eligible drugs include GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair, AstraZeneca’s Symbicort, Eli Lilly’s Cymbalta, Wyeth’s Effexor XR, and Wyeth’s Pristiq. The discount applies to members who have a normal copay of $50 on these drugs, meaning the new copay would be $30, according to Loftus’ article. Read more »

New Report Focuses on Yahoo’s Rogue Pharmacy Advertisers

Alexis Brekke Pellek PharmTech editorLike the recent report on Microsoft Bing’s sponsored ads for online pharmacies, a new report released this week by Internet-pharmacy verification organization LegitScript and antispam firm KnujOn focuses on the legitimacy of online pharmacies advertising in sponsored links on Yahoo.com. Read more »

Is Comparative-Effectiveness Going Too Far Too Soon?

Angie Drakulich PharmTech editorIn a recent New England Journal of Medicine article, researchers from Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System propose that FDA require drug labels to state whether a product is superior to other products in its therapeutic field. I think this idea is going way too far when it comes to comparative-effectiveness information.

Read more »

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