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Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Pharmacy for September 2018. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.
FRIDAY, Sept. 28, 2018 -- A pharmaceutical executive is defending his company's 400 percent price hike on an antibiotic, according to a report published in Formulary Watch.
FRIDAY, Sept. 28, 2018 -- Diclofenac initiators have increased cardiovascular risk compared with non-initiators, according to a study published online Sept. 4 in The BMJ.
FRIDAY, Sept. 28, 2018 -- Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use is associated with increased risk of hip fracture among dialysis patients, according to a study published online Sept. 27 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27, 2018 -- Influenza was deadlier last season than it has been for at least four decades, killing 80,000 Americans. So said the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Tuesday in an interview with the Associated Press.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27, 2018 -- In a rare bipartisan move, both the House and Senate have reached a compromise on legislation to address the opioid epidemic.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27, 2018 -- There is a reduction in ovarian cancer risk associated with use of contemporary combined hormonal contraceptives, according to a study published online Sept. 26 in The BMJ.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27, 2018 -- Medical practices can take steps to avoid problems related to use of social media by staff members, according to an article published in Medical Economics.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27, 2018 -- A single checkpoint inhibitor can be used to successfully treat two simultaneous types of primary cancer in a patient with Lynch syndrome, according to a research letter published online Sept. 25 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26, 2018 -- Lorcaserin facilitates sustained weight loss without increasing the rate of major cardiovascular events among overweight or obese patients, according to a study published in the Sept. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26, 2018 -- Once low rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity is achieved with tocilizumab (TCZ) plus methotrexate (MTX), patients can discontinue MTX without significant disease worsening, according to a study published in the August issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26, 2018 -- Higher inpatient pain scores and postoperative opioid consumption are associated with persistent opioid use of up to six months among children and adolescents who have undergone cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, according to a study published in a recent issue of Pediatric Anesthesia.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 -- The cumulative incidence of appendicitis recurrence within five years is 39.1 percent among patients with uncomplicated acute appendicitis initially treated with antibiotics, according to research published in the Sept. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 -- The prevalence of diabetes was 14.0 percent among U.S. adults in 2013 to 2016, with prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes 4.3 percent, according to a September data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 -- Checkpoint blockade immunotherapy (CBI) is associated with significant increases in overall survival (OS) in a real-world population of patients undergoing treatment for melanoma brain metastases (MBM), according to research published in the September issue of Cancer Immunology Research.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 -- High-risk anticholinergic prescriptions are listed for 6.2 percent of visits of older adults, according to a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 -- Components of pharmacist-led discharge counseling vary widely, and reporting is often poor, according to a review published in a recent issue of the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 -- From 2013 to 2016 there was a reduction in uninsurance among Americans from 17 to 10 percent, according to a report published in September by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Urban Institute.
MONDAY, Sept. 24, 2018 -- There is variation in the net clinical benefit of anticoagulants based on variation in published atrial fibrillation (AF) stroke rates, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
MONDAY, Sept. 24, 2018 -- Since at least 1979, there has been an exponential increase in the overall mortality rate for unintentional drug poisonings, according to a research article published online Sept. 21 in Science.
MONDAY, Sept. 24, 2018 -- Simplifying an internet-based decision support tool provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help older adults make good plan choices in the Medicare prescription drug (Part D) program could result in selection of lower-cost plans, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
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FRIDAY, Sept. 21, 2018 -- Every nine minutes, a patient in a U.S. hospital dies because a diagnosis was wrong or delayed -- resulting in 80,000 deaths a year. That sobering estimate comes from the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM).
THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- The prevalence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes is 0.5 and 8.5 percent, respectively, among U.S. adults, according to a study published online Sept. 4 in The BMJ.
THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- Children with a history of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) are more likely to be referred for a disability evaluation and meet criteria for a disability, according to a study published in the September issue of Pediatrics.
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THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- There is an urgent need for clinical trials to investigate the use of cannabinoids in pediatric patients with neurological disorders, according to a commentary published in the Aug. 27 issue of CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.
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THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- Allopurinol dose escalation is not associated with reductions in mortality risk among patients with gout, according to a study published in the August issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology.
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THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- Risk of cardiotoxicity is higher for patients receiving trastuzumab and/or anthracyclines for the treatment of breast cancer, according to a study published in the Aug. 1 issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.
THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- On average, hospitals mark up drugs by 479 percent of their cost, according to a report from The Moran Company, commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
THURSDAY, Sept. 20, 2018 -- Preoperative statin therapy is associated with higher long-term survival following abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair, according to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- Rivaroxaban does not lower risk of symptomatic venous thromboembolism and related death in medical patients after hospital discharge, compared to placebo, according to a study published in the Sept. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- Compared with intramuscular pethidine, use of intravenous remifentanil patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in labor reduces the proportion of epidural conversions, according to a study published in the Aug. 25 issue of The Lancet.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- A lawsuit filed Tuesday in California claims that pharmaceutical company AbbVie used cash, gifts, and services to induce doctors to overprescribe the widely used drug Humira (adalimumab), ignoring the medicine's potentially lethal side effects.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- Fourteen percent of older adults hospitalized with non-cardiac conditions are discharged with intensified antihypertensive treatment, of whom more than half had previously well-controlled outpatient blood pressure, according to a study published online Sept. 12 in The BMJ.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- Quarterly canakinumab administration is associated with significantly reduced risk for gout attacks without any change in serum uric acid levels, according to a study published online Sept. 18 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- In 2016 the age-standardized prevalence of insufficient physical activity was 27.5 percent, according to a study published in the October issue of The Lancet Global Health.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- States may be greatly underestimating the effect of opioid-related overdose deaths because of incomplete cause-of-death reporting, according to a study recently published in Public Health Reports.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- The most common electronically sent and received types of patient health information (PHI) include laboratory results and medication lists, according to a report published Aug. 15 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2018 -- Almost 20 percent of children and adolescents used prescription medications in 2013 to 2014, and 8.2 percent of concurrent users of prescription medications in 2009 to 2014 were at risk for a potentially major drug-drug interactions (DDIs), according to a study published in the September issue of Pediatrics.
TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 -- An active choice intervention is associated with an increase in influenza vaccination rates, according to a study published online Sept. 14 in JAMA Network Open.
TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 -- The Senate on Monday passed on a 99-1 vote legislation aimed at curbing the nation's ongoing opioid addiction crisis.
TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 -- In patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, treatment with tafamidis reduces all-cause mortality and cardiovascular-related hospitalizations versus placebo, according to a study published in the Sept. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 -- Prices for drugs under shortage increase more than twice as quickly as expected in the absence of a shortage, according to a research letter published online Sept. 18 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 -- Half of trials on the European Union Clinical Trials Register (EUCTR) are non-compliant with the European Commission's requirement that all trials post results to the registry within 12 month of completion, according to a study published online Sept. 13 in The BMJ.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 -- For high-risk patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), ranolazine does not significantly reduce the risk of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) requiring appropriate ICD therapy, or death, according to a study published in the Aug. 7 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- A new report finds that foster children are often given powerful psychiatric medicines without regard for proper safeguards.
MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- Low-dose aspirin appears to have limited effect on healthy life span in older people, according to three studies published online Sept. 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- The high mercury (Hg) concentration contained in traditional Tibetan medicine (TTM) could be harmful to humans and contribute to the environmental Hg burden in Tibet, according to a study published in the Aug. 7 issue of Environmental Science & Technology.
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MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- For commonly prescribed cardiovascular drugs, there is no evidence that drug prices are influenced by their value, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
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MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- Association health plans (AHPs) will provide small businesses with more choices, access, and coverage options, although critics warn that they may undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, according to an article published in Managed Healthcare Executive.
MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- Potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) of opioids is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality and fatal and nonfatal overdose, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
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FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- Lumoxiti (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk) injection has been approved to treat certain instances of relapsed or refractory hairy cell leukemia (HCL), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said yesterday.
FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that it has found a second impurity in three lots of Torrent Pharmaceuticals' valsartan drug products.
FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- More than one-quarter of older adults newly prescribed benzodiazepine by an non-psychiatric clinician transition to long-term use, according to a research letter published online Sept. 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- Supplementation with folic acid beyond the first trimester does not prevent preeclampsia among high-risk women, according to a study published online Sept. 12 in The BMJ.
FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- For patients undergoing rhinoplasty, postoperative opioid refills are extremely rare, according to a research letter published online Sept. 6 in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
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FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- A de-escalation from triple therapy to indacaterol/glycopyrronium may lead to a small reduction in lung function in non-frequently exacerbating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but no difference in exacerbations, according to a study published in the Aug. 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
FRIDAY, Sept. 14, 2018 -- Identifying and reducing diagnostic errors in the intensive care unit (ICU) should be a top priority, according to a perspective article published in the Aug. 1 issue of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
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THURSDAY, Sept. 13, 2018 -- Users of valsartan contaminated with N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) seem not to have increased cancer risk, according to a study published online Sept. 12 in The BMJ.
THURSDAY, Sept. 13, 2018 -- A correct diagnosis of resistant hypertension is necessary to avoid overmedicating, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association published online Sept. 13 in Hypertension.
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THURSDAY, Sept. 13, 2018 -- Recommendations have been developed for pharmacovigilance in rheumatology, emphasizing the need for continued monitoring of new drugs, according to a position statement issued by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).
THURSDAY, Sept. 13, 2018 -- Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults report continued problems affording care despite coverage gains offered by the Affordable Care Act, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12, 2018 -- Proportional mortality ratios (PMRs) for heroin-related overdose deaths and methadone-related overdose deaths from 2007 to 2012 were highest among construction workers, according to research published in the Aug. 24 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12, 2018 -- Among pediatric patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis, fingolimod is associated with a lower rate of relapse but a higher rate of serious adverse events than interferon beta-1a, according to a study published in the Sept. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12, 2018 -- Single-pill, fixed-dose combination (FDC) treatment may be more effective for improving blood pressure control in older patients, according to a study recently published in PLOS Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12, 2018 -- The Affordable Care Act (ACA) may have prompted state Medicaid programs to expand addiction treatment benefits in alternative benefit plans, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 11, 2018 -- Close to 20 percent of marijuana products in California have failed to pass tests for potency or purity since the state began mandating such testing July 1, a new report finds.
TUESDAY, Sept. 11, 2018 -- Rituximab plus lenalidomide has similar efficacy to rituximab plus chemotherapy among patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma, according to a study published in the Sept. 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 11, 2018 -- Medicaid work requirements will only impact a small proportion of persons and may only generate minimal savings, according to two research letters published online Sept. 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
TUESDAY, Sept. 11, 2018 -- Many outpatient opioid prescriptions have no documented medical indication, according to a research letter published online Sept. 11 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
TUESDAY, Sept. 11, 2018 -- The median data age in clinical trials in journals with a high impact factor is about three years at publication, according to a study published in the Aug. 10 issue of JAMA Network Open.
MONDAY, Sept. 10, 2018 -- Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin who some have blamed for the epidemic of opioid painkiller addictions, has patented a medicine aimed at curbing those disorders.
MONDAY, Sept. 10, 2018 -- Cassipa (buprenorphine and naloxone), a film designed to be placed under the tongue, has been approved to treat opioid dependence, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a news release.
MONDAY, Sept. 10, 2018 -- From July 2016 to June 2017, bystanders were documented in 44 percent of opioid overdose deaths, but naloxone was rarely administered by a layperson, according to a study published Aug. 31 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
FRIDAY, Sept. 7, 2018 -- All children and adolescents are advised to undergo annual influenza immunization, ideally with an inactivated influenza vaccine, according to a policy statement published online Sept. 3 in Pediatrics.
FRIDAY, Sept. 7, 2018 -- Among surgical patients who develop new persistent opioid use, surgeons provide the majority of opioid prescriptions in the first few months after surgery, but by nine to 12 months post-surgery, most prescriptions are from primary care providers, according to a study recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
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FRIDAY, Sept. 7, 2018 -- Supplementation with n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) in pregnancy leads to higher body mass index (BMI) in offspring at age 6 years, but no increase in the proportion of obese children, according to a study published online Sept. 4 in The BMJ.
FRIDAY, Sept. 7, 2018 -- The weighting systems that underlie hospital performance rating tools should incorporate the needs, values, and preferences of patients, according to a perspective article published in the Aug. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
THURSDAY, Sept. 6, 2018 -- High-quality health care needs to be provided to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients, and improved training is necessary to deliver that care, according to a report published in the American Medical Association's AMA Wire.
THURSDAY, Sept. 6, 2018 -- A $3.4 million grant to help a non-profit company develop a less expensive opioid overdose antidote was announced by Purdue Pharma, which makes the opioid painkiller OxyContin.
THURSDAY, Sept. 6, 2018 -- Three U.S. health care foundations and seven hospital groups have formed a generic drug company to combat high prices and chronic shortages of medicines.
THURSDAY, Sept. 6, 2018 -- Published trials have larger treatment effects than unpublished trials, while trials published in a language other than English have larger treatment effects versus those published in English, according to research published online Aug. 21 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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THURSDAY, Sept. 6, 2018 -- Heart transplants using drug-intoxicated donors have significantly increased, but their use does not seem to adversely impact post-transplant survival, according to a study recently published in the American Journal of Transplantation.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 -- The selective inhibitor of influenza cap-dependent endonuclease, baloxavir marboxil, is superior to placebo for alleviating influenza symptoms, according to a study published in the Sept. 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 -- The total excess mortality attributed to Hurricane Maria is estimated at 2,975 deaths, according to a report issued by George Washington University.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 -- Recommendations have been developed by the World Health Organization for treatment intensification in type 2 diabetes. The recommendations were published online Sept. 4 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 -- Under Medicare Part D, out-of-pocket costs are similar for infliximab and its biosimilar infliximab-dyyb, according to a research letter published in the Sept. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 -- Fostamatinib produces clinically meaningful responses in adults with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), according a study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Hematology.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 -- Emergency department providers need evidence-based strategies to identify and manage patients with opioid use disorder, according to a review published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- Enrollment in high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) has increased among adults with employment-based insurance coverage, according to an August data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- Some bottles of montelukast (Singulair) tablets for asthma have been recalled by Camber Pharmaceuticals because they contain the wrong medication, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.
TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- Remission can be achieved for most cases of schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder with amisulpride and clozapine, according to a study published online Aug. 13 in the The Lancet Psychiatry.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- Integration of pharmacists into team-based care practice models can improve patient outcome, especially in chronic diseases, such as diabetes, according to a report published in the American Medical Association's AMA Wire.
TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- Nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were diagnosed in the United States in 2017, marking a fourth consecutive year of sharp increases in these sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), according to a report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- Nalbuphine can relieve opioid-induced urine retention, according to a case report published online Sept. 4 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 -- In the United States, self-injury mortality (SIM) exceeded diabetes as a cause of death in 2015, with the gap expanding in 2016, according to a study published online Aug. 27 in Injury Prevention.
Posted: October 2018