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Pharmaceutical
Kenyan slams posts promoting allergy drug insertion to tighten vagina
Concerned pharmacists in Kenya have issued a widespread warning after viral social media posts promoting the insertion of allergy tablets for vaginal tightening, reports...
New drug may be a saviour for hypertension patients
A new drug has stunned doctors by reversing a common cause of blood pressure for years after patients stopped taking the medication, reports The...
Mission to space in the search for new cancer drugs
Roughly 480km above our heads, three washing machine-sized capsules are orbiting the earth, and inside one of them, reports The Guardian, the tiny crystals...
FDA slaps vision loss warning on GLP-1s
Lawyers representing complainants in personal injury lawsuits alleging vision loss associated with GLP-1 medications have welcomed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) directive that...
ARV tender turmoil will not affect supply, department says
The supply of ARVs to South Africans will not be affected by the recent High Court judgment whereby parts of the R15.5bn tender allocations...
Kennedy okays unproven peptide jabs, despite FDA reservations
Effort to loosen rules on unproven peptide drugs, favoured by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, are facing resistance from the majority of...
Diabetics on retatrutide lose double the weight of those on Ozempic
Adults with diabetes taking the experimental drug retatrutide – poised to become the most potent injectable weight loss medication available if approved by the...
Vital deficiencies linked to weight-loss drugs, say researchers
A growing body of research suggests that GLP-1 users are facing nutrient deficiencies that can affect their overall health, reports The Independent.
Scientists say although...
Medicine shortages worse a year after President’s interventions
Unpaid provincial Health Department accounts, regulatory disputes with SAHPRA, and manufacturing pressures are among the reported causes of a widespread medicine shortage in South...
Public sector access to obesity jabs still far off
The chances of the Health Department offering GLP-1 drugs to public sector patients for obesity any time soon are remote, reports Business Day.
While the...
Indian court orders cancer drug price cuts
Cancer drug prices are to be drastically reduced in India after a retired bank clerk took her case to the Supreme Court, reports The...
Private doctors dispense pain medication too freely
While the public system suffers from too few resources, private doctors often give patients more medication than is safe, argues GroundUp’s Nathan Geffen.
Geffen writes:
I had...
Autism ‘miracle drug’ reduces severe symptoms
A four-year old US boy’s life – and that of his family – has been completely transformed since he started treatment on a “miracle...
FDA approves potential functional cure for chronic hepatitis B
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to bepirovirsen (Hibsago) from GSK as a potential functional cure for adults...
Judge sets aside HIV contracts and orders fresh bidding process
South Africa's biggest HIV drug tender has been set aside by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), which found that the contracts awarded were unconstitutional...
BHF calls for urgent reforms to tackle medical aid hikes
Constantly rising and increasingly unaffordable medical aid hikes are pushing consumers to the limit, and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has said households...
Compounding drug rules revised in SA
Updated minimum standards and rules regarding the customisation of medicines, including GLP-1 treatments for diabetes and weight loss, can be expected in South Africa...
New CSIR pharma facility aims to reduce reliance on imported APIs
The CSIR’s brand new research facility in Pretoria, launched last week, aims to reduce the country’s massive reliance on international supplies of active pharmaceutical...
SA call for action against illegal obesity medicines suspected in US deaths
Big Pharma in South Africa and the US is calling for urgent crackdown on illegal medicines, especially unregulated obesity drugs like retatrudite, which is...
UN warns of thriving illicit medicines trade across central Africa
The United Nations issued another warning last week that central Africa could be facing a major public health threat from trafficked and illicit medicines,...
Chemo-free regimen an option for EGFR-mutant lung cancer – Swiss trial
Researchers in Switzerland suggest a three-drug combination may be effective for patients with EGFR-mutant advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who progressed on a...
FDA extends alopecia JAK inhibitor for younger age group
The FDA has approved the once-daily pill baricitinib – for the treatment of severe alopecia areata (AA) – in patients aged 12 and older, reports Medscape.
The approval extends...
SAHPRA reminder on ACE inhibitor risks
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has issued an alert to healthcare professionals of the risk of angioedema during treatment with angiotensin-converting...
Merck pulls antibiotic for multidrug-resistant infections
Merck has announced that it will no longer manufacture or market the antibacterial combination drug Recarbrio as “part of an ongoing review of its...
Discovery Vitality offers support for GLP-1 users fighting weight loss
In efforts to sustain the use of GLP-1 drugs by its members – most of whom stop claiming for the treatment within six months...
No evidence of harm from GLP-1s in pregnancy – British study
Women who accidentally fall pregnant while taking a GLP-1 treatment for diabetes or weight loss are not at increased risk of miscarriage or other...
SA pharma sector welcomes price hike
An announced 2.88% increase in the single exit price (SEP) of medicines from 1 October will have a limited effect on patients but was...
Patients turned away as national medicines stock levels drop
South Africa is experiencing widespread shortages of essential medicines, including folic acid, epilepsy medication, contraceptives and antibiotics, with some products out of stock for...
FDA approves first drug for rare, life-threatening disease
Sufferers of a very rare, progressive neurological disorder will, for the first time, have access to an FDA-approved medication, reports MassLive News.
The Food and Drug...
FDA warns of serious misuse risks of double-chin fat dissolver
An FDA labelling update has cautioned that unapproved use of deoxycholic acid injection (Kybella) outside the submental fat region may carry a risk of...
GLP-1 drugs may be linked to rare brain condition – Israeli review
A rare, serious brain condition may be linked to a small number of people taking GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes drugs, reports The Independent.
Around...
Doctors paid millions by Big Pharma to punt weight-loss drugs
Firms are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to convince US doctors to prescribe GLP-1 drugs, with most medical specialists apparently seeing nothing wrong...
Judge dismisses compounding pharmacy's appeal
A High Court application by compounding pharmacy iDexis for leave to appeal against an interim order prohibiting it from making medicines containing semaglutide has...
Union vows to fight Adcock Ingram layoffs
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa) plans to oppose Adcock Ingram’s proposed retrenchments and closure at its Clayville, Johannesburg plant, despite...
Paracetamol in pregnancy linked to girls’ uterus, ovary changes – Danish study
Female reproductive organ development in girls could be affected by their mothers’ use during pregnancy of paracetamol, suggest researchers, but whether the differences observed...
Why did promising heart drug fall so flat?
Cardiologists are struggling to figure out why a drug that should have prevented heart attacks didn’t work at all – one which, until two...
Aspen dumps LEN production interest
In a blow to the country’s plans to escalate local production of Gilead’s revolutionary lenacapavir HIV prevention shot, South Africa’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen...
Two major drug trial failures for Novartis in a week
In the wake of its high-profile setback in heart disease late last week, Swiss pharma giant Novartis really needed a win, but has flopped...
FDA adds boxed warning for iron replacement jab
A label change has been approved by the FDA for ferric carboxymaltose injection (Injectafer in the US but registered in South Africa as Ferinject...
Mounjaro gets FDA nod for CVD risk reduction in high risk diabetics
The US Food & Drug Administration’s approval of Mounjaro (tirzepatide) at the end of August to help reduce cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetics...