Pharma News

More than 20 million babies were born with a low birthweight (less than 2500g; 5.5 pounds) in 2015 - around one in seven of all births worldwide according to the first-ever estimates documenting this major health challenge.

After decades of ground-breaking laboratory works, the world’s scientific and technical community, in a landmark and historic decision taken in the recent open session of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) at BIPM on 16 November 2018, has unanimously adopted the resolution to redefine four of the seven base units, the kilogram (SI unit of weight), Kelvin (SI unit of temperature), mole (SI unit of amount of substance), and ampere (SI unit of current). This decision has now enabled scientists and researchers to base the SI units entirely on fundamental properties of nature, which will ensure their ongoing refinement and improvement for years to come. The fundamental constants are invariants of time and space and successfully replaced the artifact based units, and aptly opened up the new era for quantum world by linking all seven base units to fundamental constants/quantum standards.

New clinical research supported by the National Institutes of Health shows that increasing the intensity of treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) over time improves alcohol-related outcomes among people with HIV. This stepped approach to AUD treatment also improves HIV-related disease measures in this patient population.  A report of the new study, led by researchers at Yale University, is now online in The Lancet HIV.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning patients and health care professionals of risks associated with the use of unapproved or unauthorized devices for diabetes management, including continuous glucose monitoring systems, insulin pumps and automated insulin dosing systems.

A new drug that inhibits neonatal seizures in rodent models could open up new avenues for the treatment of epilepsy in human newborns. Researchers have identified that gluconate a small organic compound found in fruit and honey acts as an anticonvulsant, inhibiting seizures by targeting the activity of channels that control the flow of chloride ions in and out of neonatal neurons. A paper describing the research, from an international team of scientists led by Penn State researchers, appears May 15, 2019 in the journal Molecular Brain.

Researchers from two major institutions have developed a new tool with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) methods to predict a woman’s future risk of breast cancer, according to a new study published in the journal Radiology.

The European Commission has approved Dupixent® (dupilumab) for use in adults and adolescents 12 years and older as an add-on maintenance treatment for severe asthma with type 2 inflammation characterized by raised blood eosinophils and/or raised fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), who are inadequately controlled with high dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) plus another medicinal product for maintenance treatment.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has posted warning letters to five companies who produce products labeled as homeopathic for significant violations of current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations. Four of the warning letters pertain to companies who jointly produced a product labeled as homeopathic that posed a significant safety risk to consumers because their purportedly sterile products were not shown to be sterile. An additional letter outlines a company’s failure to have systems in place to assure proper design, monitoring, and control of manufacturing processes.

Disparities in health care delivery and health outcomes present distressing challenges to underserved populations, who often experience a greater burden of chronic diseases and are more likely to show signs of poor disease management. Health information technology (IT) tools may serve a vital role in reducing such disparities in the clinical care setting. In the Medical Care June supplement, “Addressing Health Disparities Through the Utilization of Health Information Technology,” authors discuss the potential application of health IT in reducing disparities by increasing access to care, improving quality of healthcare and by promoting better patient-clinician communication.

AbbVie announced that it has resolved U.S. HUMIRA (adalimumab) litigation with Boehringer Ingelheim (BI). Under the terms of the resolution, AbbVie will grant BI a non-exclusive license to its HUMIRA-related intellectual property in the United States.