Pharma News

There are three treatment options commonly used by doctors in the emergency room to treat patients with refractory status epilepticus, severe seizures that continue even after benzodiazepine medications, which are effective in controlling seizures in more than two-thirds of patients. New findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveal that the three drugs, levetiracetam, fosphenytoin, and valproate, are equally safe and effective in treating patients with this condition. The study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The investigational therapeutics mAb114 and REGN-EB3 offer patients a greater chance of surviving Ebola virus disease (EVD) compared to the investigational treatment ZMapp, according to published results from a clinical trial conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The new report also shows that early diagnosis and treatment are associated with an increased likelihood of survival from EVD.

Sun Pharma along with its wholly owned subsidiaries is a defendant in a multi-district litigation brought by various classes of plaintiffs, in the US District Court (District of Massachusetts), alleging a delay in the market entry for three generic drugs which are Valganciclovir, Valsartan and Esomeprazole.

About 10% of bone implants lead to failure due to post-surgical bacterial infections. To overcome this hurdle, often heavy dosage of medicines are injected or given orally

A team of researchers from India and the US has now come up with a method to localise the drug delivery to surgery site.

Indian researchers have identified a protein pathway in an antibiotic-resistant bacterial strain called Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and also a new molecule that can target this pathway.

This may help develop new antibacterial drugs in future.

With their expertise in the safe and effective use of medications, pharmacists can help in the management of chronic diseases. A review and analysis published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology indicates that initiatives--such as patient education, medication review, and physical assessments - led by pharmacists can make important contributions to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

As part of Project Orbis, a collaboration with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted supplemental approval to Calquence (acalabrutinib) for the treatment of adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). This new approved indication for Calquence provides a new treatment option for patients with CLL or SLL as an initial or subsequent therapy.

The Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) program for Parkinson’s disease (PD) has launched a data portal to provide de-identified information collected from 4,298 PD patients and healthy controls to researchers working to develop effective therapies for the disease. The portal enables researchers to study complex data sets and perform genome-wide analyses at a scale previously impossible.