HomePharmaceutical
Pharmaceutical
Lawsuits mount as weight-loss drug users lose vision
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed on behalf of weight-loss drug users who claim that popular weight-loss medications like Ozempic have caused a...
FDA approves new drug for lung cancer
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new medication from biotech company AbbVie that treats adults with a type of lung cancer who...
The consequences of abruptly quitting anti-depressants
Specific medications that treat disorders like anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia can be hugely effective – but stopping them abruptly can compound users’ symptoms and...
EU regulator adds suicide warning for hair loss, prostate treatments
The European Union’s drug regulator has warned that a medication to treat men’s hair loss has a rare risk of suicidal thoughts, and although...
Call for action on booming fake drugs trade in SA
Counterfeit pharmaceutical product sales from online platforms and vendors are skyrocketing in South Africa, according to a newly-released independent report, which has called for...
Gilead forks out $200m settlement after kickbacks to doctors
Pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences has settled a massive civil lawsuit and admitted to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars and kickbacks in the form...
The price of cancer remission with controversial drug
When American David Armstrong was diagnosed with myeloma cancer, he set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as...
Weight-loss jabs could halve obesity-linked cancer risks – Israeli study
Weight-loss jabs could almost halve the risk of obesity-related cancers, a landmark study has suggested, with experts calling the findings “transformational”, and saying they...
WHO backs global use of weight-loss drugs
Marking a shift in its approach to treating the global health problem, the World Health Organisation will officially back using weight-loss drugs to treat...
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...