Drugs & Pharmaceuticals

Red Yeast Rice
If you have high cholesterol, you may be taking some medications called statins, which are the most effective medicines for lowering "bad" cholesterol. But some people are turning to over-the-counter alternatives like red yeast rice, a nutritional supplement with cholesterol-lowering action. However, they come with safety concerns.
Biopharmaceutical drugs are revolutionizing medicine, but at a cost. Almost without exception, they're more expensive than small-molecule drugs, but they also are playing an increasing role in patient care. Pfizer's Dr. Robert Popovian informs us about the need to consider the value of these drugs – not just their price.  
With a recent hospital outbreak of scabies, is there a better time to clarify some misperceptions about them – and other things that go itch in the night? Nope, so take a look.
A fungus harvested from termite nests has been traditionally used to treat these two conditions. Now, Taiwanese scientists think they have discovered a plausible scientific rationale for this practice.
British scientists came up with a plan to decrease the incidence of the dangerous drug resistant Clostridium difficile: Limit the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as Cipro, in hospitals. 
The fight against cancer has been one tough war. Perhaps the most difficult battle has been finding drugs that selectively kill cancer cells while sparing the rest. A research group at Washington University Medical School has come up with a very clever approach — starving the cancer cells. 
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton collapsed Monday night in front of legislators while giving the State of the State address. Though he rebounded well, he just disclosed a recent prostate cancer diagnosis. Learn about the proper medical care that's needed when someone faints, and why it happens in the first place. 
The first member of the cephalosporin class of antibiotics was discovered in the 1940s, in a sewage pipe in Sardinia. Now a group has isolated some novel compounds from lichens gathered in northern Quebec. Three of these have modest antibacterial activity. Can chemists make them more potent? 
On a July day last year in New York, 33 people were discovered in a "zombie-like" state: staring blankly, moving and responding to medics slowly and occasionally groaning. This bizarre spectacle was the result of a very bad reaction to a synthetic cannabinoid, one that Reddit users have called "out-of-this-world potent."
A third vaccine against herpes has entered the race, and it's gotten some rave reviews for its protection of guinea pigs. But it didn't so well with monkeys. Which is more important? Testing in humans will decide, but the answer won't be known for about two years. 
Pharmaceutical companies usually provide innovation that helps improve the lives of patients. But AstraZeneca marketed Nexium, a drug that should have never been approved in the first place. The company did it solely for money — without any benefit to society – and it hauled in nearly $48 billion during the past decade.  
In 1976, Barry Kidston, a chemistry grad student, would find out the hard way that you had better be careful with your reaction conditions when making psychoactive drugs. He got a little sloppy, and instead of making a pure derivative of Demerol, got an impurity in the batch, which gave him Parkinson's with one injection. Six years later, a group of six "frozen addicts" suffered the same fate. Crazy brain chemistry.