Group calls for national policy to cover drugs for rare diseases

From CBC News:
A group that represents Canadians with rare disorders is calling for a national policy to help pay for their astronomical medical costs.

The call comes after the Alberta government decided to pay for a drug for a 17-year-old boy stricken with Pompe disease, a rare and potentially fatal disease caused by an enzyme deficiency that disables muscles.

Trevor Pare of Innisfail has been a participant in a clinical trial that paid for the drug Myozyme. The trial is over at the end of May and the Alberta government has decided to take over the annual cost, which is more than $500,000.

"It's just like unbelievable, unbelievable," Linda Pare, Trevor's mother, told CBC News. She said without the drug, her son would die in six months.

The Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders is pleased Trevor will continue to get his special drug.

But Durhane Wong-Rieger, president of the organization, said it is time for a national policy on funding of drugs used to treat rare diseases. ...more

Beta blockers may cause post-surgery stroke, death

From CTV News:
A common medication given to patients to prevent heart complications during and after surgery may in fact increase the risk of stroke and even death, a new Canadian study says.

The research showed that beta blockers, which help reduce the effects of stress hormones on the heart during and after surgery, reduced the risk of heart attack but increased the risk of stroke and death.

Out of the 4,174 patients who received the beta blocker metoprolol succinate prior to and for 30 days after surgery, only 176 suffered a heart attack, compared to 239 among the 4,177 patients who received a placebo.

However, patients who received the beta blocker were 33 per cent more likely to die than patients in the placebo group. As well, patients on metoprolol were twice as likely than placebo patients to suffer a stroke. ...more

Medical subsidies wrongly given to non-residents

From Consumer.org.nz:
Taxpayers are unknowingly subsidising pharmacy prescriptions for tourists and international students possibly to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Consumer NZ has found.

Chief executive, Sue Chetwin, says many people in New Zealand on visitors or students permits are getting subsidised pharmacy medicines they're not entitled to. And the sums involved could be substantial. Last year, 173, 675 visitors' permits and 96, 473 student permits were issued.

Ms Chetwin says the problem stems from software designed by Medtech Global, which the company claims is used in 75 percent of primary practices.

General practitioners use Medtech's software to generate prescriptions for patients. But the software cannot identify non-residents who are not entitled to subsidised pharmacy medicines. It currently codes these patients as being eligible for subsidies.

The software fault means pharmacists filling prescriptions for visitors and students are charging them a subsidised rate. Pharmacists then claim the subsidy from the Ministry of Health. The problem also extends to lab tests. ...more

Drug combo prevents NSAID-related GI disturbance

From Reuters:
Although all of the common strategies protect the upper gastrointestinal tract from the complications of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), popular over-the-counter analgesics such as Motrin (ibuprofen) or Aleve (naproxen), the combination of a COX-2 inhibitor and a proton pump inhibitor is associated with the largest reduction in gastrointestinal complications, according to a Canadian study published in the medical journal Gastroenterology.

COX-2 inhibitors treat pain and inflammation by selectively blocking the COX-2 enzyme, which prevents the production of chemical messengers that cause pain and swelling. They include drugs such as Celebrex (celecoxib). Two other COX-2 inhibitors (Vioxx and Bextra) were taken off the market in the U.S. because of safety concerns. ...more

Drop patent regulations, generic drug makers urge

From the Globe and Mail:
Canada's generic drug companies are urging Parliament to abandon proposed regulations that would delay their ability to reproduce some of the most popular name-brand drugs that are currently on the market, including Viagra and Lipitor.

Jim Keon, the president of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, said his organization is considering taking the government to court to reverse the regulations that he says will cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

The changes to Canada's drug patent regime appeared in the Canada Gazette, the formal record of government notices, two weeks ago.

Under the new rules, patents that have been removed from drugs that were on the market prior to June 17, 2006, could be reinstated. ...more

Viagra may help heart in muscular dystrophy: study

From Reuters:
A Canadian study involving mice shows that anti-impotence pills might protect the hearts of people with a common form of muscular dystrophy, researchers said on Monday.

Canadian researchers gave sildenafil, the active ingredient in drug maker Pfizer Inc's Viagra, to mice with an animal version of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and found that it improved their heart performance.

They said it would be premature to give Viagra to people with the disease, but said the results indicate the drug potentially could be used to prevent or delay heart failure in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. ...more

Natural health products facing tighter regulation

From CTV News:
People who fear that proposed changes to the Food and Drugs Act will lead to tighter restrictions on natural health products will gather for a protest at Queen's Park in Toronto this weekend.

Saturday's demonstration will follow rallies held on Thursday and Friday in other cities across the country.

Opposition to Bill C-51, which proposes changes to language within the Act, is mainly coming from those who fear it will make it harder for consumers to purchase natural health products.

The bill was put before Parliament on April 8, and is an attempt by the government to update regulations for food, drugs and cosmetics and includes "medical devices, drugs, cells, tissues, organs, vaccines and veterinary drugs, as well as natural health products," Health Canada spokesperson Paul Duchesne told CTV.ca. ...more

Asthma drugs help to prevent birth defects

From the Globe and Mail:
Women who have an asthma attack during the first three months of pregnancy put their babies at a greater risk of birth defects than asthmatic mothers who did not have a flare-up during that period, a new Canadian study shows.

The research, published in next month's issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that women who had uncontrolled asthma during this crucial period in fetal development were 48 per cent more likely to have a baby with at least one birth defect compared with those who were taking their medication.

"I hope it will encourage women to continue their treatment during pregnancy. This gives some evidence that stopping your treatment and then being more at risk of having an asthma attack puts your baby at risk of having a congenital malformation," Lucie Blais, an associate professor in pharmacy at the University of Montreal and lead author of the study, said in an interview yesterday. ...more

Canadian AIDS meds may soon head to Rwanda

From CBC News:
Four years after it was passed unanimously by Parliament, a bill drafted to allow low-cost Canadian-made AIDS drugs to be exported to developing countries may finally be on the verge of producing results.

Generic drug maker Apotex Inc. announced Wednesday that it has been awarded a contract by the government of Rwanda to sell its three-in-one AIDS pill Apo Triavir to the African country. Securing that contract was the final legal hurdle that Apotex had to manoeuvre in the onerous process of making Canada's Access to Medicines Regime work.

"We're almost there," Elie Betito, the company's director of public and government affairs, said in an interview.

"By October sometime we're hoping that the product will be on a plane on delivery to Rwanda."

He noted, though, that nothing will be final until that actually happens. The companies that hold the patents on the drugs in the Apotex combined medication can still withdraw permission for the sale to take place "even on the day we are shipping." ...more

Morning-after pills trial in second year

From the Waikaton (NZ) Times:
The morning-after pill has been free to Waikato women for the past year and the pharmacy trial was so successful it has been extended for another year.

This week, Auckland District Health Board decided to support a scheme allowing pharmacists to provide the emergency contraceptive pill to young women free, but it's not a New Zealand first.

In the Waikato, a pilot project allowing 3000 pharmacy consultations to supply the pill free to women under 25, was funded by Waikato District Health Board from April last year. The budget for the scheme was $90,000.

Waikato Community Pharmacy Group chief executive Cath Knapton said the scheme was not advertised but, through word-of-mouth, the number of morning-after pills being given out by Waikato pharmacists had increased dramatically in the past 12 months. ...more

Generics slam proposed drug patent rules

From the National Post:
New patent rules just proposed by the federal government would delay generic versions of Lipitor, Viagra and several other blockbuster drugs by as much as two years, costing consumers and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually, generic companies are warning.

The government says the regulations would simply restore fairness and stability to the brand-name industry after two court rulings put unexpected new curbs on the practice of "evergreening" -- filing new patents on a drug in an attempt to stave off generic competition.

Generic firms, which stand to lose business as a result of the suggested amendments, call the move an unjustified sop to the brand-name manufacturer. ...more

Canadian company pushing pill dispensing kiosk

From IT Business:
A Canadian firm says it can help the healthcare industry cut down prescription errors and improve patient-pharmacist contact by installing automated pill dispensing kiosks at doctors' offices, clinics, drugs stores and hospitals.

PharmaTrust, a sleek green and white box similar to an automated teller machine (ATM), can read doctor's prescription scripts, dispense 150 commonly prescribed drugs, collect and manage patient records and set up a remote live video conference with a pharmacist.

The machine, developed by PCA Services Inc., of Oakville, Ont., will soon be tested by the Sunnybrook Health Services Centre in its hospital pharmacy in Toronto. ...more

Addicts turning to pain patches

From the National Post:
Despite triggering a growing list of overdose deaths, powerful pain-control patches have become a rare but highly sought-after narcotic on some Canadian streets, a new study indicates.

Resourceful addicts have even devised ingenious ways to defeat safety features added recently to the Fentanyl patches, researchers discovered.

"This is bad news in many ways and ... I don't think anybody has a clear idea what to do about it," said Dr. Benedikt Fischer of the B.C. Centre for Addictions Research, one of the authors of the study. "This is a killer drug out there, in many ways."

Known by the brand-name Duragesic, the patches are prescribed primarily for treating chronic pain of cancer patients and others. More than 600,000 prescriptions were sold in Canada last year, according to IMS Health. ...more

Hepatitis C a 'giant' that sleeps no longer

From the National Post:
The "sleeping giant" of hepatitis C in Canada has clearly awoken, concludes a new Alberta study that found the incidence of severe illness triggered by the liver virus -- and the resulting burden on the health care system -- has grown explosively.

The number of hospitalizations for serious complications of the virus, the number of deaths while in hospital and the lengths of hospital stays jumped 400% between 1994 and 2004, the Calgary-area research found.

The results outstripped earlier projections that foresaw caseloads doubling over a similar time span.

One expert says the dramatic findings should be a wake-up call for governments that spent more than $2-billion compensating the small percentage of patients who got hep C from tainted blood but have largely neglected actual medical treatment. ...more

Free morning-after pill to go on trial

From the New Zealand Herald:
Auckland women are only a few months away from being able to go to their pharmacist and get free, unlimited access to the morning-after pill.

The Auckland District Health Board decided at a board meeting yesterday to support the scheme, detailed in the Herald on Tuesday.

Any woman, of any age, will be able to make use of the $300,000 scheme during its trial period.

The pills will be available to whoever has a need, and will not be restricted to limited numbers for each woman.

Women will be asked to provide some personal details when they receive the free pill from their pharmacist. Those details will be used to determine the success of the pilot scheme, and will not be placed on medical records. ...more

Pharmacist whacks robber with bat

From the Madison (WI) Capital Times:
A bat-wielding robber had his weapon used against himself when a Walgreens pharmacist took the bat away from the suspect and threw it at the robber, whacking him in the back while the suspect fled out of the store.

Eric Harried, 36, Madison, was arrested and tentatively charged with attempted armed robbery, battery while armed, disorderly conduct and a parole hold, following the holdup attempt Saturday afternoon.

According to Madison police, Harried tried to rob the Walgreens pharmacy at 4518 Cottage Grove Road shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday. ...more

Pharmacy open new compound centre

From the Belleville (Ont.) Intelligencer:
A Belleville pharmacy is "stepping back to the future" by opening a compound centre to produce its own medications that better suit their customers' individualized prescription needs.

Kelly's Guardian Pharmacy is the only pharmacy between Port Hope and Kingston to operate its own compound centre and pharmacy manager Tom Bond said there's been a need for it.

"It's an important addition to our pharmacy because pharmaceutical companies are not always catering to the individual needs of patients," he said. "They mass produce medication in certain dosage forms and strengths, but we're now able to produce our own medication in all different forms from raw materials."

Compounding, he explained, allows doctors to prescribe and the pharmacist to prepare a customized medication that is not available commercially, or to replace an available medication in a different dosage to meet specific patient needs.

For example, a compounding pharmacist can prepare liquid medication for patients who have difficulty swallowing a tablet. He can flavour medication for children or prepare a dye-free or preservative-free dosage form. The pharmacist can adjust the strength of a medication and formulate it in a form that is easier for the patient to take. ...more

Wyeth and Amgen bolster fatal infection warning on skin drug

From CNN:
Drugmakers Wyeth and Amgen Inc. have bolstered warnings about tuberculosis and other life-threatening infections on the label of their skin-disorder drug Enbrel.

The new boxed warning, the most serious a drug can carry, indicates patients taking the drug have contracted infections that led to hospitalization and death. The same language previously appeared in bolded text, which is considered a less serious warning.

Infections included tuberculosis, a disease which attacks the lungs, as well as bacterial sepsis, which can cause severe fever and inflammation. ...more

Pay more for new asthma drugs

From the Economic Times (India):
In an attempt to thwart price control, drug majors have withdrawn or reduced supplies of popular asthma drug Theophylline. Instead, companies like Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy’s, Cipla and Zydus Cadila have launched several new brands based on a Theophylline-derivative called Doxophylline, which is outside price control. The new brands allegedly have less efficacy, but are priced higher.

In the past year or so, companies such as Dr Reddy’s (Doxobid), Ranbaxy (Synasma), Zydus Cadila (Doxolin) and Macleods (Doxoril) launched anti-asthma drugs based on Doxophylline, which are outside price control. Over two million asthma patients in India are being made to be pay much higher price. While the cost of 10 tablets of Theophylline 400 mg is Rs 6.40, 10 tablets of Doxophylline of some brands cost as high as Rs 80. ...more

Pharmacists withdraw threat to boycott drugs schemes

From the Belfast (Ireland) Telegraph:
Pharmacists have withdrawn their threat to boycott community drugs schemes following a breakthrough in talks with the HSE yesterday.

Around 800 pharmacies were threatening to stop dispensing medicine under various schemes due to a row over the payments they receive from the HSE for wholesale medicines.

The HSE has unilaterally reduced the price in an effort to save money and the two sides are still in dispute over the matter. ...more

Shoppers Drug Mart seen as defensive buy

From the Financial Post:
Continued growth at Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. in the first quarter with no discernible impact from an economic slowdown has analysts pegging the drug retailer as a good defensive buy.

"If anything, they are seeing increased market share" in the face of a dwindling economy, said analyst Robert Gibson of Octagon Capital in a note to clients, raising his per share earnings estimates in fiscal 2009 to $2.72 from $2.67 and target price to $51.90. He maintained his hold recommendation.

Vishal Shreedhar at UBS Investment Research noted Shoppers "continues to perform in a moderating consumer environment" in a note to clients.

"We view Shoppers as a high-quality company with a defensive earnings stream. Margins continue to benefit from improved mix, increased private label, global sourcing, purchasing power and maturing real estate." ...more