Speaker: John M. Brooks, PharmD, Associate Professor of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

Neutropenia is a common and costly complication of combination chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). It occurs most often during the first two cycles of treatment and has a significant effect on inpatient Medicare costs.

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Speaker: Jeffrey E. Lancet, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Admitting Physician, Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, New York.

Interim results from a phase 2 clinical trial indicate that tip-farnab (Zarnestra™, Johnson & Johnson), a novel farnesyl transferase inhibitor, has beneficial activity in previously untreated poor-risk patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

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Yttrium 90 Ibritumomab Tiuxetan Radioimmuno-therapy in Relapsed or Refractory Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Speaker: Thomas E. Witzig, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Cancer Center Research/Immunology Program, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and Hematology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

According to an analysis of long-term responders, yttrium 90 (Y) ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin®, Biogen Idec) radio-immunotherapy produces durable long-term remissions, with time to progression (TTP) of disease being greater than 12 months, in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

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Long before South Korean scientists announced last month that they had become the first to produce human embryos and stem cells through cloning, stem cell research challenged science to accommodate politics and ethics like no other issue facing us today. Researchers believe that undifferentiated stem cells, which are found in early human embryos, might be manipulated to treat a range of currently incurable debilitating diseases. However, with existing technologies, they can be retrieved only from embryos that are destroyed, that is, embryos that are discarded after in vitro fertilization procedures. Many abortion opponents perceive this as a threat to incipient human life. Government interventions over the past three years have created an uncertain and changing legal landscape.

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Hospital pharmacies got a lot less than they had hoped for with regard to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) “final rule” on pharmaceutical package bar coding. First, there is no requirement for manufacturers of brand-name, generic, and over-the-counter drugs to put all hospital pharmaceuticals in unit-dose packages. Second, the bar code, which must appear on all bulk and unit-dose drugs and blood and vaccine products that are “commonly used in hospitals and dispensed pursuant to an order,” need not include a lot number or an expiration date; only the National Drug Code (NDC) number is required in the bar code.

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When one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies invests millions of dollars in a patient-education program, I believe that it’s worth knowing more about. At the very least, P&T committees ought to be aware of most national patient-education programs, especially when they involve medications.

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Adjunctive canadian Divalproex Sodium Lowers Cholesterol Elevation with Olanzapine generic

Author: Daniel E. Casey, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon

Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with schizophrenia. Every 1% increase in total cholesterol levels results in a 2% increase in the risk of coronary artery disease.

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