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UK blocks Alzheimer’s ‘wonder drug’ over costs
The most effective drug for Alzheimer’s has been blocked for use on the NHS, banned – despite regulators declaring it safe – because of...
EMA withdraws authorisation for Duchenne MD treatment drug
After re-examining available data, the European Medicine Agency’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has confirmed its previous recommendation to not renew the conditional marketing authorisation...
Zealand, Boehringer get FDA ‘breakthrough’ status to treat MASH
Denmark’s Zealand Pharma and German partner Boehringer Ingelheim have won the US Food and Drug Administration’s Breakthrough Therapy status for the review of their...
FDA green lights Pfizer’s drug for haemophilia A, B
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Hympavzi (marstacimab, Pfizer) as routine prophylaxis to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in patients...
Gilead inks deal for generic HIV drug supply to low-income nations
Gilead Sciences has granted royalty-free licences to six generic drug manufacturers to make and sell cheaper copycat versions of its HIV prevention medicine in...
Slow progress on Pfizer’s plan to sell cheap drugs to poor nations
Two years after launching a plan to make its medicines available to 45 low-income countries at not-for-profit prices, Pfizer has only signed up 10...
Lupus drug meets main goal of late-stage trial
An experimental lupus treatment has met the main goal of a late-stage trial in patients with the chronic disease, a surprise result after the...
EMA extends mpox jab to youngsters
The European Medicines Authority has recommended extending the indication of the smallpox/mpox vaccine Imvanex (also know as Jynneos) to adolescents aged 12 to 17, the drug...
Prescription amphetamine tied to higher psychosis risk – US study
Amphetamine use has risen steadily in the US over the past few years – up 70% between 2011 and 2021 – with a recent...
Mpox drug SAE only in compromised patients – CDC study
An analysis by the US Centres for Disease Control & Infection on the use of Tpoxx – the antiviral drug tecovirimat prescribed to more...
FDA alert on menopausal drug
The FDA has issued an alert warning women about menopausal medicine for hot flushes, saying fezolinetant (Veozah), a hormone-free pill, could cause rare but...
Liraglutide reduces six-year-olds’ weight in nine-country study
Researchers say that liraglutide (Saxenda), in combination with lifestyle intervention, helped reduce the body mass index (BMI) in obese children as young as six.
In...
Aspen urges co-operation for local production of mpox vaccines
With Africa under immense pressure to curb an outbreak of the mpox, Aspen Pharmacare is “in talks” with partners to manufacture vaccines at its...
Price of lifesaving drug deliberately hiked – UK court
British taxpayers were forced to pay millions of pounds for a lifesaving drug after a pharmaceutical company deliberately inflated the cost, pushing it up...
US boosts allowance for Japanese ADHD drug to alleviate shortage
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has increased the production limit for Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ ADHD drug Vyvanse and its generic versions by about 24%...
Global counterfeit scheme likely behind Fake Ozempic spread
Forged drug batch numbers, which are being used by criminals to sell dangerous lookalike weight loss products, could be linked to a massive global...
What time is best to take daily BP pills?
Based on data from five trials and nearly 50 000 patients, researchers have found “conclusive evidence” that taking medicine for blood pressure (BP) in...
Experts flag rise of drug-resistant contagious fungus
A newly named fungal species has global scientists worried about its stubborn resistance to usually effective first-line drugs, the fact that it can be...
Doctors flag painkiller prescribed ‘for everything’
Huge numbers of older people are taking the non-opioid pain medication gabapentin for a variety of conditions, including itching, alcohol dependence and sciatica, with...
EMA rejects US-approved Alzheimer’s drug
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has rejected a licence for the Alzheimer’s treatment lecanemab (Leqembi), saying the benefits did not counterbalance the risk of serious side...
SA woman drops case against US firm for cystic fibrosis drug
Johannesburg investment banker Cheri Nel has dropped a potentially landmark court case against Vertex Pharmaceutical in which she sought to secure access to lifesaving...
US to buy African-made ARVs for Pepfar programme
America is throwing its weight behind African production of antiretrovirals, with the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief programme (Pepfar) committing to buying...
Acne antibiotics trigger rare, fatal chain reaction
A deadly reaction to antibiotics often used to treat acne, gout and seizures is flying under the radar because it’s so rare, but experts,...
Daily antibiotic wards off STIs – Canadian study
Scientists from Vancouver say their recent small study suggests a daily dose of a common antibiotic may prevent some infections with syphilis, gonorrhoea and...
Sackler family faces rash of lawsuits for OxyContin crisis
Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of highly addictive opioid OxyContin, is being pursued by a mass of creditors as well as more than 40 states...
J&J price probe dropped after TB drug costs slashed
Health NGOs have hailed the agreement reached between the Competition Commission and Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals over the termination...
Draft codeine guideline now out for comment
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has released its new draft guideline it hopes will help stem the misuse of codeine, and...
How effective are analgesics for non-specific low back pain?
Experts have warned that analgesics have limited effect on low back pain – the world’s leading cause of disability, with half a billion (9%)...
Tirzepatide effective for obstructive sleep apnoea – US study
An international collaboration has suggested that tirzepatide, known to manage type 2 diabetes, could be the first effective drug therapy for obstructive sleep apnoea...
Australian pharmacists lash out at vape policy turnaround
Furious Australian pharmacists have hit back at a new Bill permitting consumers to buy plain-packaged nicotine vapes from pharmacies without a prescription, saying they...
Krejcir’s lawyers blame prison doctors for OxyContin habit
Lawyers representing Czech Republic-born mobster Radovan Krejcir last week accused Gauteng prison doctors of prescribing a highly addictive drug to treat the underworld boss...
Fewer people may need statins to prevent heart disease – US study
A new way of determining heart disease risk could slash the numbers of people who are prescribed statins, suggests a recent study, although doctors...
American Academy: Updated guidelines for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), has issued the first update in eight years to the Clinical Practice Guideline(CPG) for Management of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome...
Campaigners call for cheaper version of costly HIV drug
Former world leaders, celebrities and a Nobel prize-winning scientist who helped discover HIV have written to US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences pleading with it...
Aspen calls for regulator to prioritise locally-made drugs
Aspen Pharmacare has urged SA’s medicines regulator to support local firms by fast-tracking their applications to register new products, with head of strategic trade...
Judge green-lights 700 000 Zantac lawsuits
In a blow to British pharmaceutical company GSK, a Delaware judge has given the go-ahead for more than 70 000 lawsuits alleging that its...
BP meds double bone-fracture risk in elderly patients – US cohort study
Nursing home patients who take blood pressure drugs have a higher than normal risk of life-threatening bone fractures, which can then often trigger a...
Ozempic cuts kidney disease risk – global study
A multi-year study finding that Ozempic markedly lowers the risk of complications from chronic kidney disease could dramatically increase the pool of patients eligible...
Weight-loss shots linked to unexpected pregnancies
With claims suggesting that weight-loss jabs may be fuelling an unexpected increase in pregnancies, experts have recommended that women pair the use of drugs...
More of Big Pharma's Covid vaccine bully tactics laid bare
With the release of a second tranche of information showing how South Africa was bullied into paying outrageously high prices for its Covid-19 vaccines,...