Five years of therapy with the drug tamoxifen has become the norm for postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer. However, this has several adverse side effects, and studies have continued to compare the effects of other drug therapies with tamoxifen.
Although most patients do not react badly to prescriptions, a new study has found that one in 16 hospital admissions (in two hospitals) were caused by adverse drug reactions, and these resulted in an average of 8-day inpatient stays, using 4% of the hospitals' bed capacity.
Scientists at biopharm firm Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc* (PRDT) recently confirmed their identification of lead ligands capable of specifically targeting certain 'challenging' viruses.
Forli, Italy - With construction almost completed, the 550-bed Ospedale Nuovo G B Morgagni can now provide state of the art services for the community it serves.
Sildenafil, an active agent used in the impotence drug Viagra, has been administered to seven young mountaineers on an Everest expedition, to test its effect on the lungs. Seven other men on the expedition are receiving a placebo.
TB causes three million deaths annually, ranking it higher than any other infectious disease. And TB has resurged in Europe. In August, the British Thoracic Society, British Lung Foundation and TB Alert highlighted its increase in over the last 15 years in the UK alone.
Medication regimes based on cocktails of antiretroviral drugs can reduce the AIDS virus to almost undetectable levels.
Ethyl Chloride skin refrigerants made by the Gebauer Company, of Cleveland, Ohio (established over 100 years ago) have received the CE Mark of approval.
'Genetics offers prediction of risk, more precise diagnosis, more targeted and effective use of existing drugs, new gene-based drugs and therapies, and prevention and treatment regimes tailored to an individual's genetic profile.'
A newly invented 'Polypill', composed of currently available drugs, may act as a 'vaccine' against heart disease, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal (28 June. BMJ 2003;326:1419).
France - Four studies of three TAXUS paclitaxel-eluting stents have demonstrated their safety and efficacy, according to the maker, Boston Scientific Corporation of Natick, Maryland, USA.
Global sales of prescription and over-the-counter drugs grew 8% to $430.3 billion last year, according to the annual IMS World Review report, which tracks about 90% of all prescription drugs and certain over-the-counter products in over 80 countries.
Todays test formats (gel technology, micro test plates), plus laboratory electronic data processing and automation, have changed the classic format of blood group serological examinations significantly - and reduced the danger of life-threatening errors.