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Drug Updates

Subcategories:AnalgesicsBiologics/DMARDs

U.S. Senator Launches Probe into 5 Top Opioid Drugmakers

Reuters Staff   |  

(Reuters)—U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill sought on Tuesday details from the nation’s top opioid drugmakers on their sales and marketing practices, as lawmakers step up efforts to tackle the country’s deadly opioid crisis. The Missouri senator’s investigation comes amid an epidemic of opioid addiction, with 91 Americans dying everyday as a result of overdose, according…

Immune-Related Adverse Events with Use of Checkpoint Inhibitors for Immunotherapy of Cancer

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Introduction: Major advances in the past two decades have enhanced our understanding of the complex interactions between the immune system and cancer cells and their environment. Genetic and epigenetic alterations in tumor cells result in the expression of diverse antigens that can elicit an immune response, primarily mediated by T cells. Immune responses are regulated…

Would Legalizing Medical Marijuana Help Curb the Opioid Epidemic?

Ronnie Cohen  |  

(Reuters Health)—In states that legalized medical marijuana, U.S. hospitals failed to see a predicted influx of pot smokers, but in an unexpected twist, they treated far fewer opioid users, a new study shows. Hospitalization rates for opioid painkiller dependence and abuse dropped on average 23% in states after marijuana was permitted for medicinal purposes, the…

When Starting Biologics for RA, Disease Severity Predicts Likelihood of Remission

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—After starting biologic therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), patients with higher disease activity at baseline achieved greater improvements in measures of disease activity than those with lower levels of disease, but they were less likely to achieve remission or even low disease activity, according to a new real world analysis of registry data….

Factors that Influence Biologic Therapy Choices for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Recent research analyzed factors influencing the selection of the first-line biologic medications and the real-life factors that lead to switching from those medications to other biologics in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study compared the use of abatacept and tocilizumab with a tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitor (TNFi).1,2 Participants were enrolled in the Lombardy Rheumatology…

Paternal Methotrexate Exposure Not Tied to Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes

Scott Baltic  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A father’s exposure to methotrexate 90 days or less before conception “should not be of major concern,” researchers say. Prepregnancy paternal methotrexate exposure appears to confer no increased risk of major or minor congenital malformation, stillbirth or preterm birth in his offspring, their study found. Methotrexate is a first-line therapy for rheumatoid…

As Biosimilars Hit, EU Pharma Warns against Blanket Prescribing

Reuters Staff  |  

LONDON (Reuters)—European drugmakers, faced with increasing competition from cut-price copies of complex biotech drugs, cautioned doctors on Thursday to take care when switching patients from an established product to biosimilar version. The complex nature of biological medicines, which are made inside living cells, means copies can never be exactly the same as the original. But…