Pharmacology News

The FDA can require a safety program called a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, for a medication with serious safety concerns to ensure the benefits outweigh the risks. An REMS is designed to reinforce behaviors and actions that support safe use of that medication to mitigate a specific risk.

Patients with chronic pain receiving long-term opioid therapy who were assigned to cognitive behavioral therapy reported reductions in pain and pain-related disability, data show.

The antidepressant fluvoxamine reduced the need for hospitalization among high-risk patients with COVID-19, according to results of the randomized, placebo-controlled TOGETHER trial.

Therapeutic-dose low-molecular-weight heparin decreased the likelihood of blood clots and death compared with standard of care among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to study results published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Pharmacotherapy can be an important intervention for adolescents with obesity, according to a speaker at the Obesity Medicine Association fall conference.

During hospitalization for COVID-19, patients who received antiplatelet therapy demonstrated lower risk for mortality and shorter mechanical ventilation duration compared with those who did not receive it, researchers reported.

The likelihood that opioid treatment for common neurological conditions was initiated appeared to decrease with greater access to neurologists or other specialists who offered alternative pain treatment.

Express Scripts will prefer Viatris’ insulin glargine-yfgn injection, the first FDA-approved interchangeable biosimilar insulin product, on its largest formulary, the company announced in a press release.

Authorized generic drugs for insulin and direct-acting antiviral agents may lower out-of-pocket spending for patients but are unlikely to provide savings for Part D plans or Medicare, data show.

The FDA has approved Zimhi, a high-dose naloxone product that is administered through a prefilled syringe to counteract potentially fatal opioid overdoses, the agency and the drug’s manufacturer announced.