Pharma News

Ensuring patient safety by improving medicine use and reducing medication errors is the crucial role of today’s pharmacists. “Safe and effective medicine for all”, the theme for this year’s world pharmacists day emphasises this crucial intervention and assistance of pharmacists sought by the healthcare delivery system. Achieving this noble objective of better patient health is next to impossible without the expert advice and assistance of pharmacists.

A UK wide collaboration led by the University of Exeter, Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, has demonstrated that a genetic variant carried by 40% of the population explains why some patients develop antibodies against the anti-TNF drugs, infliximab and adalimumab and lose response. The authors conclude that a further trial is required to confirm that genetic testing prior to treatment will reduce the rate of treatment failure by facilitating the most effective choice of therapy for individual patients. The research, part-funded by Wellcome, Crohn’s & Colitis UK, Guts UK, Cure Crohn’s Colitis and supported by the NIHR, is part of a programme of work committed to finding the right drug for the right patient first time.

Many drugs, especially those made of proteins, cannot be taken orally because they are broken down in the gastrointestinal tract before they can take effect. One example is insulin, which patients with diabetes have to inject daily or even more frequently.

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award  the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine  jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.

In 2015, EPFL researchers led by Melanie Blokesch published a seminal paper in Science showing that the bacterium responsible for cholera, Vibrio cholerae, uses a spring-loaded spear to literally stab neighboring bacteria and steal their DNA. They identified the spear mechanism to be the so-called “type VI secretion system” or T6SS, also used for interbacterial competition by many other bacteria.

The cause of Non-communicable diseases has risen to a fervent pace, pushing the growth goals of the nation to a standstill, while creating significant hurdles on the way, especially when it comes to diabetes. To create an impressionable counter, awareness needs to be generated and keeping that in mind, IIHMR University has celebrated its 35th Foundation day with a discourse on diabetes. Held on the 5th of October 2019, the day witnessed a zeal of a new level as apart from the much-awaited cultural program and alumni meet, IIHMR U channeled in a sage-like approach to dispersing knowledge as it moved towards desensitizing and waking up young minds up to the perils of Diabetes.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Descovy (emtricitabine 200 mg and tenofovir alafenamide 25 mg) in at-risk adults and adolescents weighing at least 35kg for HIV-1 pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of HIV-1 infection from sex, excluding those who have receptive vaginal sex. Descovy is not indicated in individuals at risk of HIV-1 infection from receptive vaginal sex because the effectivness in this population has not been evaluated.

Of an estimated 6,500 to 7,000 known rare diseases, only a fraction – maybe 5% – have U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments. To increase that percentage, the National Institutes of Health has awarded approximately $31 million in grants in fiscal year 2019 to 20 teams – including five new groups -- of scientists, clinicians, patients, families and patient advocates to study a wide range of rare diseases. An additional $7 million has been awarded to a separate data coordinating center to support these research efforts.

Children born to women who have high blood levels of lead are more likely be overweight or obese, compared to those whose mothers have low levels of lead in their blood, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and Health Resources and Services Administration. The study was conducted by Xiaobin Wang, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues. It appears in JAMA Network Open.

IIHMR University will celebrate its 35th Foundation day on 5th October 2019. Apart from the much-awaited cultural program and alumni meet, IIHMR U is all set to utilize the prestigious occasion of its 35th Foundation Day to desensitize and wake young minds up to the perils of Diabetes. India is in a precarious situation as the rise of Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes are pushing the nation’s complete health goals far behind.