Latest Drug News

People who use statin drugs are less likely to die of influenza and chronic bronchitis, according to a study that shows yet another unexpected benefit of the cholesterol-lowering medications. Their study of more than 76,000 people showed that those who had taken statins for at least 90 days had a much lower risk of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, the technical name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Patients on statins also had a lower risk of dying from influenza or pneumonia, the researchers reported on Monday. Statins -- which include Pfizer Inc.'s $10 billion-a-year Lipitor, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Pravachol and Merck and Co. Inc.'s Zocor -- are the world's best-selling drugs, taken by millions to reduce the risk of heart attack. The new study supports a theory proposed last year that statin drugs might help patients with H5N1 avian influenza, which some studies suggest kills by causing an immune system overreaction called a cytokine storm. Read full story

The FDA has ordered several brands of prescription nausea and vomiting medication off the U.S. market, saying the drugs had not received government approval. Regulators said roughly a dozen manufacturers and distributors have until May 9 to cease sales of rectal suppositories containing the drug. The move does not affect several trimethobenzamide-containing oral drugs and injection drugs also used for nausea and vomiting.

About 2 million suppositories containing trimethobenzamide were sold last year, according to FDA. The ban affects widely distributed brands including Tigan, Tegamide, Trimethobenz, and Trimazide. Patients taking any of those brands should talk with their doctors, says Jason Woo, MD, associate director of scientific and medical affairs in the FDA’s Office of Compliance. Officials said they had no safety concerns but that manufacturers had not shown substantial evidence that trimethobenzamide is effective in suppository form. Read full story

Combining two commonly used medications can provide faster, long-lasting relief of migraine pain than using either drug alone, concludes a new study. The study compared the use of a new combination pill that includes sumatriptan (brand name Imitrex) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) to use of either drug alone and to a placebo for moderate to severe migraines.

The researchers found that the combination therapy provided headache relief within two hours for as many as 65 percent of the study volunteers compared to about 28 percent for placebo. Up to 55 percent reported that Imitrex alone provided relief, while as many as 44 percent felt that naproxen gave them relief from their headache. "The combination product is superior to the individual products alone," explained study author, Dr. Jan Lewis Brandes, a neurologist with the Nashville Neuroscience Group and an assistant clinical professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. "It really targets more of what's happening in the brain during migraine. Sumatriptan works to constrict the blood vessels and interrupt pain, while naproxen works on the inflammatory process." Results of the study are in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read full story

The Parkinson's disease drug pergolide has been removed from the market, because it has been linked to heart valve damage in patients. The drug, which goes by the brand name Permax, has had a troubled history. It was voluntarily withdrawn Thursday by its maker, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Two generic versions are manufactured by Par Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. "The reason for the withdrawal is because of the high rate of damage to the heart valves in users of pergolide," Dr. Robert Temple, director of the Office of Medical Policy at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said during a teleconference Thursday afternoon. "The damage causes the valve to become leaky. The drug is called a dopamine agonist and is used as starting therapy for Parkinson's patients." Read full story

Patients with bipolar disorder will gain no treatment benefit by adding an antidepressant to a standard mood stabilizer such as lithium, a new study finds. The results suggest that treating with a mood stabilizer alone is preferable, a recommendation that goes against common practice.

"We really think that at the beginning of your treatment, it is very reasonable to have this 'mood-stabilizer-optimized' kind of approach, and what we've learned from this study is it makes sense to give that some time to work," said Dr. Gary Sachs, lead author of the study, director of the bipolar clinic and research program at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "The patient loses nothing from that," Sachs added. "We did not show that any group benefited from having antidepressants added." On the other hand, doubling up the medications did not confer any risk, Sachs's team reported in the March 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Read full story