The FDA today issued a Public Health Advisory regarding Trasylol (aprotinin, made by Bayer), warning doctors who prescribe this medication to closely monitor patients’ toxicity levels.
The drug, which is prescribed after bypass surgery to prevent blood loss, has been found in studies by the New England Journal of Medicine and Transfusion to lead to “higher risks of kidney problems, heart attacks, and strokes” in patients undergoing the procedure.
The FDA has approved an injectable form of the drug Imitrex for use in the treatment of migraine headaches. Patients are dispensed a two-dose autoinjector with 4mg doses. While the medication is only for certain kinds of migraines, those patients that can benefit from it could see results in as little as ten minutes.
Side effects are similar to those of inhaled or oral Imitrex, with the addition of possible burning or skin irritation at the injection site. Patients with cardiovascular diseases should be closely monitored while taking this medication.
From WJLA-TV
Every week, I’ll post a list of the past week’s FDA approvals. For more information, visit the FDA’s What’s New section:
Three health plans and two medication vendors in Massachusetts are engaging in what’s called the eRx Collaborative, a plan to provide more than 3,400 PDA’s bundled with prescription software. So far doctors in the plan have transmitted more than three million prescriptions with the system. View Full Article »
Well, Medicare Part D has only been in effect for a little over a month, and it’s already (still?) a pain in the rear end. However, there are several plans in the works, by both CMS and Congress.
Welcome to PharmCountry, the newest place on the web for all the latest pharmacy news. I’ll be posting to this blog often with information from around the web about the latest NDA approvals and drug recalls, as well as anything else that affects those of us in pharmacy.
I’ll also be doing a weekly podcast (probably not for a couple of weeks, so I can get the content of the website to fill up first) with some of the things I’ve talked about on the blog, plus other information I find.
I hope you’ll enjoy this site, whether or not you’re a pharmacist or pharmacy technician. Please feel free to post comments on any post or send me an email at andrew [at] chronolink [dot] net or clicking the “Contact” link at the top of the page. Thanks!
