Women's cardiovascular outcomes

Women with stable angina or acute coronary syndrome have higher mortality than men because they have thicker arteriolar walls and a greater diffusion radius relative to body surface area, an Australian study in the journal Hypertension has concluded.

Medicine misuse

With growing numbers of consumers misusing medicines, there a suggestion for a pharmacy shopper alert system to identify OTC drug abusers.

Sanofi-Aventis wins the votes

Pharmacists across Australia have voted French drug producer Sanofi-Aventis the most outstanding pharmaceutical company for 2010.

Testosterone Gel

Researchers reported that topical testosterone gel replacement reduced insulin resistance and glycated hemoglobin in men who were deficient in the hormone.
According to Hugh Jones MD of the University of Sheffield in England "This was the first large placebo-controlled study to show that testosterone replacement in hypogonadal men with metabolic syndrome or diabetes improves insulin resistance and glycemic control." Low testosterone is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes in men. Up to one-third of men with type 2 diabetes are testosterone-deficient, due to aging or treatment for prostate or testicular cancer. Moreover, glycated hemoglobin levels were cut by half a percentage point after six months of treatment, Jones said during a presentation here at at the Society for Endocrinology annual meeting.

Obesity drug market in decline

Poor efficacy and negative side effects will have a detrimental effect on the sale and development of obesity drugs, according to a forecast by Datamonitor. Obesity is partly the result of lifestyle factors, such as exercise, diet, and increases in the proportion of sedentary jobs. The market for anti-obesity drugs has proved far more difficult to conquer than most companies expected. In 2006, that market segment generated sales of over $1300m worldwide. There have been problems in marketing products, with concerns over safety and efficacy having a negative impact on sales. There have been major disappointments, but some commercial opportunities remain.

SSRIs and pregnancy

The use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in pregnancy, particularly sertraline and citalopram, may increase a baby’s risk of septal heart defects. A population-based study of 493,113 children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2003, published online in the British Medical Journal, found that the odds ratio for septal heart defects was 3.25 for sertraline, 2.52 for citalopram, and 1.34 for fluoxetine.

Smoking while pregnant

One in six women smoked while pregnant and one-fifth of Australian children were overweight, according to the latest snapshot of the health of the country's children. Tobacco smoke contain carcinogens. The current view on cancer is that carcinogenicity is a stochastic effect, where various environmental factors trigger the development of cancer. While exposure to a carcinogen increases the probability of cancer, the process remains random.