Welcome to our first theme issue of ShortCuts. This week, we decided to focus on the tribulations of the pharmaceutical industry, which recently seems to be plagued by new FDA advisories and NY Times exposés.
The first bad news for pharmaceutical companies occurred …
By: Melissa Freeman, MD, PGY1
For over a decade now, statins, or 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors, have facilitated millions of patients in the management of their atherosclerosis. Statins are known for their ability to reduce hepatic lipoproteins, up-regulate hepatic …
Commentary By: Josh Olstein, PGY-3
Earlier this month the FDA approved Tekturna (aliskiren) the first drug in a novel class of antihypertensives that work by directly inhibiting renin. While Novartis has yet to release pricing information, don’t expect to see this new …
Commentary By: Danise Schiliro, PGY-3
Although intuitively we always worry about creating drug resistance when using antibiotics, there is a surprising lack of well done studies that show a clear causal effect of antibiotic use on the development of subsequent drug resistance. A …
Commentary By: Cara Litvin PGY-3
The FDA recently informed physicians of a report issued by GlaxoSmithKline acknowledging that Avandia (rosiglitazone) has been linked to increased fractures in females (1). The report stems from a review of the safety data from ADOPT (A Diabetes …
Commentary By Josh Remick, PGY-2
In the December 27th 2006 issue of JAMA, Yang et al. reported the results of a nested case-control study of United Kingdom patients entitled “Long-term Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy and Risk of Hip Fracture.” …
A 53 year old male with chronic hepatitis C and type 2 diabetes is found to have a moderately elevated cholesterol.
1. Is it safe to start a statin?
2. Do statins have any effect on viral replication?
Comentary By Ed Bini, M.D. Associate …
Last week, the FDA issued a public health advisory regarding the use of methadone (trade name Dolophine) for chronic pain. Death and life threatening side effects have been reported in patients newly starting …