Studies have shown that formulary restrictions can be an effective means of controlling drug use, but concerns have arisen about clinical consequences, say researchers from Canada. One retrospective study, for example, suggested that restricting fluoroquinolones drug could lead to more hospitalizations for pyelonephritis and bronchitis. To confirm these findings, the researchers conducted a study using a database of 1.4 million older adults.
Antibiotic resistance is making it more difficult to treat common urinary tract infections (UTIs). Resistance to betalactam antibiotics prompted a switch to trimethoprim drug/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/ SMX, Bactrim); however, this agent was also susceptible to resistance, and fluoroquinolones became the new first-line choice.
Ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin, Spectrum) has been approved for patients with previously untreated follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) who have achieved a partial or complete response to first-line chemotherapy. This recent indication supplements the drug’s 2002 approval as a therapy for patients with relapsed or refractory low-grade or follicular B-cell NHL. This agent is a CD20-directed radiotherapeutic antibody.
Source: FDA, The Medical News, September 5, 2009
Doctors today presented more evidence that it’s time for long-time antibiotic stalwarts like penicillin and amoxicillin to step aside when it comes to the treatment of strep throat.
The most common medications used to treat the strep germ, the bug that causes millions of sore throats in U.S. children every year, simply aren’t doing the job and aren’t as effective as newer antibiotics known as cephalosporins. In results presented today at a large infectious disease meeting, the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Washington, doctors who reviewed the treatment given to 11,426 children showed that even a short course of the newer drugs is more effective than the traditional 10-day dose of the older antibiotics.
