Pharmacology News

Although the current approach to incentivizing antibiotic development has led to the creation of effective treatments, the pipeline has collapsed numerous times, leaving clinicians stranded against increasingly resistant infections, according to an article published the Annals of Internal Medicine.

SAN DIEGO — Thomas Kosten, MD, Waggoner Chair and Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, Immunology, and Neuroscience, and director of the division of addictions at Baylor College of Medicine, spoke about the potential of nonopioid alternatives for chronic pain in a video interview.

SAN DIEGO — As the health care community moves away from opioids for pain management, a number of approaches may be set to fill the gap, according to a presentation at the 2019 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.

Older patients prescribed donepezil had a higher risk for hospital admission for rhabdomyolysis than patients prescribed rivastigmine or galantamine, according to a population-based cohort study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The FDA announced that it and the Drug Enforcement Administration sent warning letters to four online networks that operate 10 websites for illegally marketing “unapproved and misbranded” versions of opioid medicines, including tramadol.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents in a nationwide survey showed interest in using marijuana or cannabinoids for pain management, with many reporting that they believed those options were safer than opioids and had fewer side effects than other pain medications.

Sandoz has voluntarily recalled all generic forms of Zantac (ranitidine) in the United States after noting confirmed contamination with N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a possible human carcinogen, above established FDA levels, according to a company press release

The introduction and success of direct-acting antivirals drove the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes work group to make major updates to its clinical practice guidelines regarding hepatitis C virus infection in chronic kidney disease, or CKD.

During a recent 10-year period, physicians in the United States ordered at least one off-label systemic drug in nearly 19% of pediatric ambulatory care visits, and around 75% of the orders were for unapproved conditions, according to findings published in Pediatrics. This trend contradicts recent efforts to increase evidence and drug approvals for children, researchers noted.

The FDA boxed warning issued in 2016 highlighting the risks of coprescribing opioids and benzodiazepines was linked to a decrease in the number of patients with coprescriptions in the U.S., according to a research letter published in JAMA Psychiatry.