http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A subsidiary of India's largest pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay a record $500 million in fines and penalties for selling adulterated drugs and lying to federal regulators in a case that is part of an ongoing crackdown on the quality of generic drugs flowing into the U.S. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-drug-million-penalty.html Medications Mon, 13 May 2013 17:20:01 EST news287683643 Pfizer Inc.'s first-quarter net income rose 53 percent despite falling sales, mainly because the world's second-largest drugmaker took big charges a year ago. Pfizer's results fell short of Wall Street's expectations, and the company lowered its profit and sales forecasts for the year, blaming sudden worsening currency exchange rates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-pfizer-q1-profit-drugmaker-outlook.html Other Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:57:53 EST news286534664 (AP)—The Supreme Court is struggling with whether it should stop pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-high-court-drug-companies-policy.html Medications Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:41:00 EST news283437653 (AP)—Federal regulators are pressing the Supreme Court to stop big pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs. They argue these deals deny American consumers, usually for years, steep price declines that can top 90 percent. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-court-drug-companies.html Medications Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:11:36 EST news283353071 (HealthDay)—Four U.S. government-funded clinical trials will search for new therapies for Alzheimer's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-extensive-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:40:42 EST news277404035 The commitment of Canadian premiers to lower generic drug prices is a major change in how the country prices generic drugs, and government should learn from past attempts, states an article published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-competitive-drug-prices-canada.html Medications Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:00:03 EST news272536021 An inexpensive antifungal drug, thiabendazole, slows tumor growth and shows promise as a chemotherapy for cancer. Scientists in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin made this discovery by exploiting the evolutionary relatedness of yeast, frogs, mice and humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-common-antifungal-drug-decreases-tumor.html Cancer Tue, 21 Aug 2012 03:03:57 EST news264737025 A critical shortage of generic drugs in the United States, particularly in cancer care, could be curbed with legislation now being hammered out by the US House and Senate, doctors said on Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-legislation-aims-curb-cancer-drug.html Medications Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:40:01 EST news258042450 (HealthDay) -- Even in the field of cancer treatment, sometimes newer isn't necessarily better. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-older-drug-advanced-breast-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 04 Jun 2012 09:40:02 EST news258020025 In February, the United States came within weeks of running out of preservative-free methotrexate, a generic drug that is an essential component of chemotherapy treatments for the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The crisis put hundreds of children’s lives at risk in a troubling way: Oncologists know how to save the lives of most of these children, but can’t do so without the drug. Sadly, the methotrexate shortage was not unique; in the last five years, drug shortages have escalated in a variety of medicines. Chemotherapy shortages, however, are generally more critical because there are no equivalent alternatives for most of these medications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-link-shortages-cancer-drug.html Medications Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:12:39 EST news254473951 (AP) -- Efforts by India and the European Union to strengthen trade are threatening India's ability to deliver lifesaving medicines to the world's poorest, analysts say as the two sides push through protracted negotiations on a free-trade pact. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-india-global-pharmacy-role-threatened.html Medications Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:30:02 EST news248074058 Robert Linhardt is working to forever change the way some of the most widely used drugs in the world are manufactured. Today, in the journal Science, he and his partner in the research, Jian Liu, have announced an important step toward making this a reality. The discovery appears in the October 28, 2011 edition of the journal Science in a paper titled "chemoenzymatic synthesis of homogeneous ultra-low molecular weight heparins." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-discovery-paradigm-drugs.html Medications Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:00:01 EST news238941017 There is no difference between brand-name and generic drug formulations of amiodarone -- taken to control arrhythmia – in the incidence of thyroid dysfunction, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-difference-brand-drugs-thyroid-dysfunction.html Medications Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:56:47 EST news229607792 Promising results of the Phase I clinical trial of the generic drug BCG (bacillus Calmette-Guerin) to treat advanced type I diabetes were announced today at the American Diabetes Association scientific sessions in San Diego. A research team led by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Immunobiology Laboratory is presenting two abstracts (No. 2240-PO and No. 0057-LB) – the first which describes the apparent reproduction in human patients of the mechanism that reversed type 1 diabetes in a mouse model and the second proposing that lack of a key part of that mechanism may explain why recent trials of an antibody-based diabetes therapy were not successful. The Iacocca Foundation has been the primary supporter of this work. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-results-phase-diabetes-trial.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 26 Jun 2011 04:45:31 EST news228282312