| More in Tier are turning to generic drugs
After enduring years of rising prescription drug costs, patients suffering from illnesses ranging from high blood pressure to weak bones can take heart in a new trend. The growing use and availability of generic prescription drugs saved Southern Tier residents, insurance companies and employers more than $25 million in 2007, according to recent findings by Excellus Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The trend is expected to continue as patents on major medicines continue to expire, making way for generics available at a fraction of the cost, said Joel Owerbach, vice president and chief pharmaceutical officer with Excellus. Patents that expired in 2007 include Norvasc, a blood-pressure drug, and Ambien, a sleep medication. Fosamax, an osteoporosis drug, is next up, with an expiration date in February.
FDA Approves New Blood Pressure Medication
Tablets containing a combination of the blood pressure medication aliskiren and water pill hydrochlorothiazide have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the product's manufacturer, Novartis AG, said Monday. Sold under the name Tekturna in the United States, the hypertension compound aliskiren was approved last March. It acts by targeting renin, an enzyme responsible for high blood pressure. The newly approved version also includes hydrochlorothiazide, a compound that inhibits the kidney's ability to retain water. This water pill is commonly used to treat high blood pressure. Tekturna HCT tablets are intended for patients whose blood pressure has not been controlled by a single drug. They will be available in early February the company said. Side effects associated with the new combination tablets include dizziness, flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, cough, tiredness and skin rashes.
Spirituality Helps Older Black Women Beat Hypertension
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Spirituality helps older black American women with high blood pressure stick to the drug regimens that keep the condition under control, new research suggests. Older black Americans tend to have poorer anti-hypertensive medication adherence than either younger blacks or white patients, even though adherence helps reduce hypertension-related health problems and deaths, noted a team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. This study included 21 black women, average age 73, who were members of a Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly. The women had been diagnosed with hypertension for an average of 16.7 years, and they were taking an average of 3.3 prescriptions to battle the condition. All the women said they used their spirituality to manage their medication adherence.
Quantitative PET imaging finds early determination of effectiveness of ...
With positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, seeing is believing: Evaluating a patients response to chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) typically involves visual interpretation of scans of cancer tumors. Researchers have found that measuring a quantitative indexone that reflects the reduction of metabolic activity after chemotherapy first beginsadds accurate information about patients responses to first-line chemotherapy, according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. .
Politicos flex muscles in opponents’ areas
Politicians in Haryana have taken a fancy to slug it out in their opponents battlegrounds to make their presence felt. The trend by now is so prevalent that holding a rally at their home turf has almost become a thing of the past. The trend has also caught the imagination of the man on the street, forcing the politicos to show their political muscle in their arch opponents area of operation. Although senior politicians have been organising political performances outside their own constituencies or home districts in the past, these were either a part of a statewide political campaign like the one launched by late Devi Lal in 1985 against the Rajiv-Longowal accord or such events marked the end of campaigning before the assembly or parliamentary election in the state. For several decades, Rohtak remained the first choice of all major political parties and their leaders for hosting campaign-end shows.
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