Supply of sodium bicarbonate solution, a vital drug used for open-heart surgery, organ failure and chemotherapy, is running dangerously low in the US. It’s an ironic situation because the drug’s base ingredient, regular baking soda, is found in most people’s kitchens. The…
May 11, 2017
Nearly 1/3 of drugs that obtain FDA approval are subsequently found by the agency to pose safety risks, according to a new study in JAMA.
May 11, 2017
On the streets of Haiti, untrained vendors make a living selling medications out of plastic buckets. The illegal sales—sometimes of knockoffs, counterfeits and expired drugs—have led to dangerous situations for some Haitians. As part of a National Geographic project…
May 9, 2017
Industrial pollution caused by Indian pharmaceutical companies in Hyderabad is creating deadly superbugs, a major new study in the journal Infection suggests. Working together, University of Leipzig scientists and German journalists found residue of antibiotic and…
May 1, 2017
Iowa nonprofit SafeNetRx is leading the charge to combat medication waste by collecting leftover, unexpired prescription drugs from nursing homes and redistributing them to the many patients who can’t afford them. While waste is not tracked nationwide, the EPA estimates…
April 11, 2017
In July, Uruguay will become the first country where pharmacists can legally sell recreational marijuana over the counter. Marijuana sold in pharmacies will come from fields supervised by the government, and a national registry that people must enroll in to buy the drug is…
March 31, 2017
In response to rising prescription drug costs in the US, the Pew Charitable Trusts has curated a list of 6 payment policies shown to help manage costs in other high-income countries. The policies include benchmarking against drug costs in other countries or against…
February 7, 2017
Research-based pharmaceutical companies have a bad reputation across the globe. To repair their image while also tapping new markets among populations that are typically underserved, companies should turn “access to medicine” into a business strategy, argues Damiano de…
January 31, 2017
Two major drug distributors, McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health, recently agreed to pay fines for their failure to report suspicious orders of controlled substances to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The settlements were announced as drug distributors come under…
January 18, 2017
Drug makers have manipulated America’s Orphan Drug Act — enacted in 1983 to help people suffering from rare diseases — for their own financial gain, according to a Kaiser Health News investigation. To encourage development of drugs that will benefit very few patients,…