Pairing medication with an ingestible sensor can help clinicians track how often and when patients actually take their prescription drugs, according to a small new investigational study. The findings come on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision last month to approve the first digital pill for use with the antipsychotic drug… read on >
Sublocade, a once-monthly injection of buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Opioid abuse is diagnosed when a person’s pattern of opioid use leads to “significant impairment or distress and includes signs and symptoms that reflect compulsive, prolonged self-administration of opioid substances for no legitimate medical… read on >
Think cigars are safer than cigarettes? Think again, new research warns. Nicotine levels in so-called “small” or “filtered” cigars were found to be equal to or greater than that found in cigarettes, according to the study by researchers at Penn State’s College of Medicine. “There seems to be a perception in the public that cigars… read on >
Ogivri (trastuzumab-dkst) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the nation’s first biosimilar drug to treat certain breast and stomach cancers, the agency said Friday in a news release. The maker of a biosimilar, derived from a living organism, must demonstrate that the new product is “highly similar” to an already… read on >
Add one more reason to why you should brush and floss regularly: Gum disease bacteria are now tied to higher odds of esophageal cancer. The study tracked the oral health of 122,000 Americans for 10 years. It found that the presence of two types of bacteria linked with gum disease may hike the risk of… read on >
A once-monthly injection of the opioid addiction drug buprenorphine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Millions of Americans are suffering from addiction to opioid drugs, and millions more are worried that the overdose epidemic could claim the lives of a friend or loved one,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Thursday… read on >
Bacterial resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin may have begun years before doctors started prescribing it in the early 1960s, a new study suggests. Ampicillin, a broad-spectrum penicillin, is widely used to treat many bacterial infections, including bladder and ear infections, pneumonia and gonorrhea. Resistance was likely triggered by overuse of penicillin in livestock in North… read on >
All prescribers of opioid pain medications — not just high-volume prescribers — play a role in the U.S. epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses, a new study says. Deaths from drug overdoses in the United States rose from about 52,000 in 2015 to more than 64,000 in 2016. Most of those deaths involved opioids, including… read on >
The majority of children growing up in America today will be obese by age 35, a new computer analysis predicts. The study’s lead author, Zachary Ward, described the forecast as “sobering.” But, he added, “It should not be surprising that we are heading in this direction. We are already approaching this level of adult obesity… read on >
Many older Americans take multiple medications — but only about one-third ever discuss possible interactions between drugs, a new poll finds. This could endanger their health, researchers said. “Interactions between drugs, and other substances, can put older people at a real risk of everything from low blood sugar to kidney damage and accidents caused by… read on >
