What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe - Ben Goldacre When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world -- except much of the time, negative or inconclu... By: TEDEducation … Continue reading →

Offering People Drugs Extras Explanations I got good tweets ----------------------------------http://twitter.com/lahwf The Facebook Page ---------------- http://www.facebook.com/lahwf Store ---------... By: LAHWFextra … Continue reading →

Popular prescription drugs like statins are causing more childhood poisonings. Popular prescription drugs like statins are causing more childhood poisonings. Dad takes a cholesterol-lowering statin so he'll be around to see the kids grow up. But statins, like Lipitor and Zocor, as well as some other common adult prescription drugs are causing a rise in poisonings among children, a study says. The big surprise is that children are at risk not just from opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin, which most parents know need to be kept away from kids. Seemingly innocuous medications for high cholesterol, diabetes and angina are sending children and teenagers to the emergency room. The risk was highest for children 5 and younger, who might pick up a pill from the floor and try it. Diabetes drugs and beta blockers caused the highest rate of emergency room visits, higher even than for opioids. Diabetes pills, such as metformin or one of the sulfonylurea drugs, can cause seizures and death in someone who isn't diabetic. And beta blockers, such as atenolol, lower heart rate and blood pressure. An adult dose of these can be especially dangerous for small children. Nearly half of the children who went to … Continue reading →

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) India Monday rejected allegations of exporting counterfeit drugs, saying those are desperate attempts by some countries to malign its flourishing pharmaceutical industry, which enjoys a unique position of low-cost manufacturing and highest quality medicine. It said there were reasons to believe that "vested interests" were raking up isolated issues about technical deficiencies in good manufacturing practices (GMP). There have been extensive media reporting about on the quality of drugs (pharmaceutical products like Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and formulations) manufactured in India for exports. Some isolated reports have also been received about export of spurious /counterfeit drugs attributed to some source in India. "Government has strong reason to believe that some of the spurious drugs detected in the international markets, alleged to be exported from India, are desperate attempts by other countries getting affected by the strength of Indian pharma industry," the ministry of commerce and industry said in a statement to clarify on reports of malpractices of pharma manufacturing in India. The statement came after New Delhi-based Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest drug company by sales, pleaded guilty in the United States to criminal charges of making adulterated medicines and agreed to a 500 million dollar (around … Continue reading →

FRIDAY, May 31 (HealthDay News) -- One in 10 teens admits to using a prescription stimulant or amphetamine to boost their performance in school, but most parents aren't aware of the scope of the problem, a new study finds. In an effort to stay alert and get better grades, students are taking so-called "study drugs," such as Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin and Vyvanse, which are intended to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Taking these medications, however, has not been shown to help students improve their grades, the researchers said, and abuse of these drugs could be very dangerous. A national survey of more than 700 randomly selected households with teens, conducted in January by the University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital, found that only 1 percent of parents of teens between 13 and 17 years old believe their child has taken a stimulant as a study aid. Yet in a 2012 University of Michigan study sponsored by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, 10 percent of high school sophomores and 12 percent of seniors admitted to using a "study drug" that was not prescribed by a doctor. "What we found in this poll is a clear mismatch between what parents believe … Continue reading →

Jean-Michel Pawlotsky has dj vu. The doctor in the town of Creteil, just outside Paris, is telling hepatitis C patients to delay treatment until later this year, when two new drugs that may boost their chances of defeating the lethal liver infection hit the market. Its the same advice he offered two years ago, when earlier medicines developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) and Merck & Co. (MRK) were poised for approval. Now he says those drugs, hailed as breakthroughs in 2011, will soon be superseded by products from Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) and Johnson & Johnson. (JNJ) The pace of innovation, spurred by drugmakers jostling for a slice of a market that may reach $15 billion by 2018, has turned hepatitis C research into one of the fastest-developing areas of medicine. That boosted Gileads shares to a record last month, and left others like Vertex facing dwindling sales as their products quickly go from revolutionary to outdated. Things are moving very fast, Pawlotsky, who teaches medicine at the University of Paris-Est, said by phone. People are frustrated, they want more, better. Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that can scar the liver and afflicts about 170 million people worldwide, is … Continue reading →