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 Blood Information - December 3, 2008
| U.S. consumers could have saved $20 billion in 2004 and even more during this and future years by using more generic drugs, according to a new report by Express Scripts, Inc. In reference to the U.S. commercially insured population, the study looked at six major drug-therapy classes and was based on a random sample of approximately 3-million individuals | | New anaylsis finds a diabetes pill, on its way toward federal approval, doubles the risks of deaths, heart attacks and strokes. Muraglitazar, to be sold under the name Pargluva for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, was endorsed by a Food and Drug Administration panel last month. Researchers with the Cleveland Clinic analyzed the data on the drug, developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck & Co., which the FDA made public before the panel vote | | Lung cancer patients whose tumors are deemed inoperable may benefit from limited surgery, if it is combined with a procedure called brachytherapy, where tiny radioactive seeds are implanted at the margins of the tumor. Subhakar Mutyala, MD, director of brachytherapy in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Montefiore and the lead author of a new study, says, "Although brachytherapy is not new, this is the first study to demonstrate that combining modern minimally invasive and precision radiation techniques yields significantly improved results | | St. Louis, MO (AHN) An international team of researchers has partially unraveled the genetic details of a mysterious disorder that formerly caused seizures and death in infant boys within one month of birth | | Studies reveal that elderly adults with heart disease are less likely to receive aggressive treatment, than younger patients. In response, recent treatment guidelines have emphasized the fact that age alone should not determine whether emergency patients get blood-clot-dissolving drugs or invasive procedures. However, the new study of patients at 443 U.S. hospitals, found that the older patients were, the less likely they were to receive these therapies -- even when their overall health was taken into account | |
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