pharmaceutical-industry specific search engine

PharmaLiveSearch.com generates more precise results than general search engines, eliminating irrelevant links. PharmaLiveSearch.com suggests broader and narrower search terms, recommends related search terms, and displays the most popular searches.
Enter a keyword in the search box to query information on companies, products, diseases, therapeutic categories, and more:
http://www.pharmalivesearch.com/search?qgeneral=&searchtype=defLink

Exclusive Academic Pharma Research Website

"www.pharmaresearch.in" is the India's 1st exclusive and free Pharma website for academic research to bridge the existing lacuna between academic institutes and Pharma industry association and to provide the research problems to all research scholars by industrial experts for the research deliberations and rational solutions. The research theme will be actual research problems/research in the areas of R&D, F&D, Pharmacology, Biotechnology and Herbal drug Technology units and thus it will offer a paramount opportunity to each of the research scholars to show their potentials according to need of research in Pharma industry.
Apart from this, website will also provide as a sole destination to many information On latest Pharma news about seminars & workshops in India, Free access to Pharma journals, Indian Pharma publications, Impact factor for Pharma journals, Pharmaweb links, Free Pharma Software, Sources of financial assistance for research project in India, sources for travel grants, List of CROs in India, List of facilities for instrumental analysis, List of facilities for herbarium and plant identification and many more Pharma updates.

Pharmacotherapy of Chronic Pain

Advances in basic and clinical research have greatly expanded the options for analgesic pharmacotherapy. There are three broad categories of analgesic medications: (1) nonopioid analgesics, which includes the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetaminophen, dipyrone, and others; (2) a diverse group of drugs known as the “adjuvant analgesics,” which are defined as “drugs that have primary indications other than pain but may be analgesic in selected circumstances;” and (3) opioid analgesics. The advent of highly selective COX-2 inhibitors has generated excitement because of the possibility that these new NSAIDs will be much safer than previous COX inhibitors. However, the cost–benefit of using these relatively more expensive drugs versus other NSAIDs plus gastroprotective therapies needs to be determined. Adjuvant analgesics can be grouped into four major classes according to their use: multipurpose, neuropathic pain, musculoskeletal pain, and cancer pain. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of these drugs during the past two decades and they now play an important role in the management of chronic pain. Pain specialists are now using opioids for chronic nonmalignant pain in addition to the traditional use for acute and cancer pain. This change in practice evolved from recognition that selected patients with chronic noncancer-related pain can experience sustained analgesia and function better with these drugs, without developing an addictive disorder. The combination of opioids and other drugs, such as an N-methyl- -aspartate-receptor antagonist, may improve the balance between analgesia and adverse effects.

rosuvastatin reduces the risk of cardiovascular events by 54% in people who do not have high cholesterol level after 2 years

The JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention Intervention) trial has shown that rosuvastatin reduces the risk of cardiovascular events by 54% in people who do not have high cholesterol level but have raised high sensitive C reactive protein. The trial was scheduled for a follow up of 4 years, but after nearly two years as there was a significant reduction in the primary end point at two years tyhe trial was stopped.

The original research article and an editorial was recently published in NEJM. There are two important issues regarding the results of this trial

1. Long term safety of rosuvastatin is not yet established. If we are going to start rosuvastatin for a low risk subject without any clinical disease for primary prevention, he will be taking it for a long period say 20 years. In such case without long term safety being established, it should not be advised.

2. Secondly the patency of rosuvastatin is now held by Astra Zeneca and the drug is very costly now. If this protective effect is a class effect then the cheaper statins which have become generic can be substituted.

Software for Research Methodology

Software ReMe ver1.0.0 - 'Research Methodology for Undergraduates'
The software is absolutely free and anyone can download it from http://www.ampiweb.org/indphar/sware.htm. It is a fully working CAL software to learn about research methodology. Though the software is aimed at UGs, it would still be useful for anyone who is yet to be inducted into research/dissertation work. It includes modules for planning & conducting a simulated experiment on animals, analysing data and drawing conclusions. Background text material for each topic (such as how to search literature,animal research ethics, random allocation, allocation concealment, statistical analysis of data etc.) is available for the user to help him plan and execute the study.
If you download and use it, I would appreciate receiving your comments

Aggressively lowering of blood sugar lead to more deaths

The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has announced the early cancellation of one part of a major diabetes and cardiovascular disease study after discovering that patients undergoing that treatment were more likely to die from heart attacks and strokes.The Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study included 10,251 adults with Type 2 diabetes who were considered to be at especially high risk of heart attacks and strokes. One of the treatments in the study involved using combinations of FDA-approved diabetes drugs to aggressively lower participants' blood sugar to levels as close to normal as possible."Of these, 257 in the intensive treatment group have died, compared with 203 within the standard treatment group," the NIH announced. At the time of the experiment's cancellation, patients had been undergoing treatment for an average of four years.The NIH said that it does not know what caused the increased risk of death among patients undergoing intensive treatment, but it does not believe that the risk came from any individual drug or combination of drugs. Rather, there appears to be some negative effect on the body from so aggressively lowering blood sugar levels."This presents a real dilemma to patients and their physicians," said Richard Kahn, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association. "How intensive should treatment be? We just don't know."Previously, health experts have believed that the closer to normal a diabetic's blood sugar can be lowered, the better. The NIH findings have offered a major challenge to that conventional wisdom.Approximately 21 million people in the United States suffer from Type 2 diabetes, and the numbers increase every year. The elevated blood sugar that is characteristic of the disease is well-established to lead to a host of other health problems, including an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke

Source

Rimonibant banned in Europe

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has banned the new antiobesity drug rimonabant in European Union. EMEA has suspended the marketing authorisation as the benefits no longer outweigh the risks of psychiatric adverse effects.

Bilateral Acute Angle Closure Glaucoma in a 50 year old female after Oral Administration of Flavoxate

Case Report published in British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

Zakir Shaik Mohammed, 1 Zaka-ur-Rab Simi, 1 Salman Mohd Tariq 2 & Khan Rahat Ali 2
1 Institute of Ophthalmology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002 and 2 Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India
DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)10.1111/j.1365-2125.2008.03254.x

PMID: 18754848

Published Online: 8 Jul 2008

Journal Medline

Summary
A 50 yrs old female presented with sudden painful diminution of vision of both eyes after ingesting a tablet of Flavoxate (200 mg). She was diagnosed as a case of Bilateral Acute Angle Closure Glaucoma (ACG). Intra Ocular Pressure was 69.3 mmHg in both eyes which normalized within ten hours after discontinuation of Flavoxate and administration antiglaucoma drugs. The effect was probably due to anticholinergic activity of Flavoxate leading to narrowing of the angle of the anterior chamber by pupillary dilatation. Naranjo ADR Probability Scale as well as WHO Causality Categories indicated a probable relationship between the adverse effect (Bilateral Acute ACG) and Flavoxate therapy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of Flavoxate induced Bilateral Acute ACG

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