Pharma News

EMA’s safety committee (PRAC) is recommending new measures to avoid dosing errors that have led to some patients incorrectly taking methotrexate-containing medicines daily instead of weekly.

With the recognition by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)of Slovakia, the European Union and the United States have now fully implemented the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) for inspections of manufacturing sites for certain human medicines in their respective territories.

Medicated stents are widely used to unblock heart arteries. While the drug prevents the growth of muscle cells around the stent, it however, retards endothelial cells necessary for healing the wound site and may result in the formation of clots. That’s why anti-clotting medications are given, which must be taken life-long; also, they come with adverse side effects.

The European Union task force set up to address problems with medicines supply has published two documents today: guidance for marketing authorisation holders on reporting of shortages in the EU good practice and  guidance for communication to the public on medicines’ availability issues.

Variants in the gene ARMC5 may be associated with high blood pressure among blacks, according to a National Institutes of Health study led by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The study team identified 17 variants in the ARMC5 gene that were associated with high blood pressure by analyzing genetic research databases that include those of African descent. The study is published in the July 3, 2019, issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“The General Budget 2019-20 is a reflection of the pragmatism and visionary governance of our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji. It is development-oriented and people-centric.A landmark budget was presented today by the Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman with the agenda of “putting the nation first”. This was stated by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare while welcoming the Union Budget for the year 2019-20. Thanking the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji and the Finance Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan further said that this is an inclusive budget which is pro-poor, pro-farmer, pro-downtrodden and for the development of all the sectors and the country at large.

A team of scientists at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, have found that a combination of Vitamin A and Vitamin D3 could be used to treat kala azar.

The recent outbreak of Nipah virus in Kerala, which follows one that occurred in 2018, has brought the focus back on bats which are known to host the virus. Using machine learning - a form of artificial intelligence (AI) – an international group of scientists has identified bat species with the potential to host Nipah virus.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to Xpovio (selinexor) tablets in combination with the corticosteroid dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is resistant to several other forms of treatment, including at least two proteasome inhibitors, at least two immunomodulatory agents, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.