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Pharmaceutical
Semaglutide effective for fatty liver disease – phase 3 trial
Semaglutide is not only hugely effective for weight loss and diabetes but it has now been found effective for people who have developed liver...
Weight loss pills a win for obesity in poor countries – experts
Newly developed weight loss pills could have a big impact on tackling obesity and diabetes in low- and middle-income countries, experts say, because not...
US pharmacy chain forks out $350m in opioid script settlement
Walgreens, the second largest pharmacy chain in the United States, has agreed to pay up to $350m in a settlement with the Department of...
Antibiotic resistance risking SA’s newborns’ lives
Experts say bacterial infections are responsible for more infant deaths than is generally recognised, and that things may get worse as more of the...
Anti-smoking pill helps youngsters stop vaping – US trial
A recent clinical trial showed that teens and young adults who took varenicline – an FDA-approved, twice-daily smoking cessation pill for adults – are...
SADC harmonised medicines regulatory initiative a lesson for Africa
The ZaZiBoNa initiative to harmonise the regional registration of requirements for pharmaceutical products has saved time and costs for manufacturers and applicants in the SADC...
China poised to take advantage of Africa’s rising pharma market
Africa’s pharmaceutical sector is witnessing an influx of foreign interest, with Chinese companies leading the charge. This surge comes as Africa’s $25bn pharmaceutical market...
Indian firm recalls two dozen medications sold to US patients
FDA inspectors found serious problems at a Glenmark Pharmaceuticals factory in India that manufactured two dozen recalled drugs, while another medication made there has...
Lilly to seek approval for daily GLP-1 weight-loss, diabetes pill
Eli Lilly plans to seek FDA approval for its once daily GLP-1 pill – the oral version of its Zepbound and Mounjaro – after the...
Biggest threat to antibiotic resistance not script-happy GPs
To prevent a catastrophic failure of the drugs on which modern medicine relies and is completely dependent, look to animal farming in middle-income countries,...
Drug-resistant infections killed 3m children worldwide
A landmark study presented this week at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) in Vienna has revealed that more than...
New NICE antibiotic guidelines for babies, children with pneumonia
Babies and children aged between three months and 11-years-old with pneumonia should be offered a three-day rather than five-day course of antibiotics, suggest new...
Trump now turns to pharmaceuticals in tariffs war
The pharmaceutical sector appears to be next in Donald Trump's firing line, with the US President this week hinting at further carnage following his...
'Game-changing' lenacapavir roll-out hangs in the balance
Aids activists say that if South Africa was able to roll out the twice-yearly anti-HIV jab to enough HIV-negative people, new infections could slow...
Shingles and statins findings a 'significant' boost in dementia fight
Shingles vaccines and statins have been found, separately, to significantly reduce the risk of dementia, which researchers say is of "tremendous importance" in the...
ADHD drug benefits outweigh health risks – global study
People taking ADHD drugs – children, adults and adolescents – showed minimal increases in blood pressure and pulse rates, with the “risk-benefit ratio” being “reassuring”,...
New antibiotic approved to treat UTIs
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first new antibiotic to treat UTIs in 30 years. The medication, gepotidacin, targets E. coli bacteria,...
Malaria caused DRC ‘mystery deaths’
Malaria has been confirmed as the mystery illness that killed 52 people in the DRC earlier this year and affected nearly 1 000 others,...
Who is allowed to prescribe medicines in SA?
What medicines need prescriptions and who is authorised to write them is not a straightforward matter. In his latest #InsideTheBox column in Spotlight, Dr...
FDA approves drug for rare Prader-Willi syndrome
The US Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to Soleno Therapeutics’ medication for a rare genetic disorder, making it the first...
Immigrants turn to thriving black market for medicines
Prescription medicines are easily accessible from illegal vendors on the streets of Johannesburg as immigrants, who say they are denied healthcare in clinics, turn...
Study links anti-depressants to higher risk of sudden cardiac death
Anti-depressants could increase the risk of sudden cardiac death up to five-fold, suggest Danish researchers, who found patients taking the medications for between one...
Aspen SA in hot water with FDA over sterilisation concerns
Aspen Pharmacare has been rapped over the knuckles by the US Food and Drug Administration and issued with a warning letter for failing to...
TB drug shortage hits provinces
The Eastern Cape is reaching crisis point with TB drug stockouts three months after reports of a global shortage of the medicines first emerged,...
Young patient dies after new Duchenne gene therapy
A young person with Duchenne muscular dystrophy died after treatment with the recently approved gene therapy delandistrogene moxeparvovec (Elevidys), Sarepta Therapeutics said last week, adding...
Only 10% of non-surgical treatments kill backache – Australian review
Most treatments for back pain do not work – and even the few that do, bring little relief, a global review of the evidence...
Two new guidelines for acute migraine treatment
The American College of Physicians (ACP) has issued two key recommendations for the treatment of migraine – the disabling condition ranking as the second...
New daily endometriosis pill for NHS England patients
England’s NHS will soon be offering patients the first-of-its-kind pill for endometriosis, the combination drug, relugolix–estradiol–norethisterone (also known as relugolix combination therapy or Ryeqo),...
Move to quit psychiatric medication gains momentum
American author Laura Delano walked away from the treatments that defined her teens and 20s. Now, she’s hoping to create a road map for...
Patients floored by drug’s ‘deviant behaviour’ side effect
British patients whose doctors prescribed them drugs for restless legs syndrome (RLS) said they were not warned about the significant side effects of the...
MS patients in England in line for take-at-home pill
Thousands of NHS patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England are to become the first in Europe to benefit from a major roll-out of...
ADHD scripts in England up by 18% each year since pandemic
The number of prescriptions being issued in England for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication has risen by 18% year-on-year since the pandemic, with...
High wastage of anaesthetic drugs in SA theatre – Bara study
Reducing anaesthetic drug wastage in hospitals is crucial for improving operating room efficiency and controlling costs, particularly in developing countries where resources are limited,...
FDA expands access for schizophrenia drug
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has eliminated a longstanding requirement that patients taking clozapine, an anti-psychotic used for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, to submit...
Why you shouldn’t take old medicine – and what not to do with it
Using expired medication and disposing of it unsafely comes with significant health, economic and environmental risks, warns pharmacy Professor Renier Coetzee, who is also...
NHS warning after deaths tied to obesity drugs
The medical director of the NHS has warned that 82 people in the UK have died after taking drugs for diabetes and weight loss,...
WHO launches free cancer meds for children in low-income countries
The World Health Organisation has launched a new platform providing cost-free cancer medicines for thousands of children living in low- and middle-income countries, whose...
Study flags risks of taking seniors off blood thinners
Clinicians often worry about prescribing blood thinning medications to older patients because of concerns about falls and major bleeding, but research in England suggests...
FDA places two Indian manufacturers on import alerts
The FDA has prohibited two Indian API manufacturers from shipping products to the US, with the agency reporting it found bare footprints in one...
FDA green-lights rapid-acting insulin biosimilar product
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Merilog (insulin-aspart-szjj) as a biosimilar to Novolog (insulin aspart) for the improvement of glycaemic control...