Scientists are developing an anti-AIDS pill that can be taken before sex and prevent transmission of the deadly disease.
The successful development of such a treatment would be controversial because it raises ethical questions about the circumstances in which the pill should be taken.
Experts in the disease, which claimed two million lives last year, are involved [...]
The risks of two widely used asthma drugs outweigh their benefits for both children and adults, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said Thursday.
The health panel targeted GlaxoSmithKline’s Serevent and Foradil, made jointly by Novartis AG and Schering-Plough, for restrictions, but it excluded Advair, Glaxo’s biggest-selling drug in the class of medications known [...]
Patients who receive free drug samples from their doctors end up having significantly higher out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs than people who don’t receive free samples, a new study finds.
In fact, patients who received free samples spent about $166 in out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs in the six months before receiving the samples, $244 [...]
In the latest research to cast a shadow on the safety of a popular bone-strengthening medication, researchers report that long-term use of Fosamax is associated with unusual fractures of the thigh bone.
The fractures were low-energy fractures, meaning that they all occurred from a fall from standing height or less, and the bone cracks were in [...]
Drug maker Amgen Inc. said Friday it expanded black box warnings about risks of death and tumor growth of its blockbuster anemia drugs.
The warnings approved by the Food and Drug Administration state that the company’s drugs increased death and accelerated tumor growth in patients with early stage breast cancer and cervical cancer. Earlier labeling warned [...]
For people with type 2 diabetes and moderately elevated blood glucose levels, the medication vildagliptin, sold under the brand name Galvus, can produce long-term improvements in the functioning of the insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas along with better glucose control, researchers report.
“Improvement of glucose control, which was a known fact for vildagliptin, is paralleled, [...]
A new drug can help alcoholics overcome their addiction by reducing stress-induced cravings, a study has found.
There is already a drug on the market, Revia, which treats alcoholism by reducing the body’s ability to enjoy its effects.
This new drug cuts cravings by taking the edge off of stressful situations which might push recovering alcoholics to [...]
A drug approved for the treatment of arthritis may have a role in reducing the risk of diabetes and heart trouble developing in young obese individuals, Harvard researchers report.
Compared with an inactive placebo, the anti-inflammatory drug salsalate reduced glucose levels by an average of 13 percent in 20 non-diabetic adults no older than 30 years [...]
People taking a certain type of blood pressure medication called calcium channel blockers may also be lowering their risk of getting Parkinson’s disease, according to a study released Wednesday.
A study by Swiss researchers found that people who had been taking a calcium channel blocker medication for an extended period of time had a 23 percent [...]
US-based Poniard Pharmaceuticals has presented encouraging safety data from a Phase I dose-escalation study of picoplatin for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
The data presented at the 2008 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium included safety data from a Phase I study of picoplatin in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5FU) and leucovorin (LV) as a first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal [...]
