Here are few brief news related to healthcare & pharmaceutical scenes for your update.
? Potential Smoking Death Crisis in India
In a stark prediction, smoking could soon account for 20% of all male deaths and 5% of all female deaths in India for people aged between 30 and 69.
Currently, NEJM study has found that smoking already caused about 900,000 deaths a year in India from an estimated 120 millions smokers in India. Indians smoke different types of tobacco products and bidi (small hand-rolled cigarettes) are very popular. The study involved a large survey of deaths among a sample of 1.1 million homes in all parts of India, and it revealed that among men who died, smoking caused about 38% of deaths from tuberculosis, 32% of cancer and 20% from vascular disease.
Going forward, India's health minister said his ministry is trying to take all steps to control tobacco use - in particular by informing the many poor and illiterate of the risk of smoking.
BBC Wednesday, 13 February 2008
• Baxter Probing the Allergic Reactions to Heparin
Baxter International Inc. executives have initiated the investigations into a sharp rise in allergic reactions – which include breathing difficulties, vomiting, excessive sweating, and rapidly falling blood pressure - to its heparin products, including reports of 4 deaths, which resulted in their recalls for 9 lots of heparin on 17-Jan-08 in the USA and temporary plant closure of the heparin production units. Heparin is a critical component for haemodialysis and heart surgery procedures.
Heparin is harvested from pig intestines and has been marketed in the US since the 1930s. The US FDA received 350 complaints involving the Baxter product since the beginning of 2008, compared with fewer than 100 for all of 2007.
Most allergic reactions were logged at dialysis centers, and nearly all of those stricken had received a high dose of Heparin in a short time, the agency said.
The FDA also advised healthcare providers to use other sources of heparin where available; if not, the Baxter vials should be used in the lowest possible dose and patients being monitored closely.
• Generics Capture Two Thirds of US Prescription Drugs Market
According to data issued by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association during it’s annual industry meeting in Florida, 65% of prescriptions in the USA were filled using generics last year, up from 63% in 2006.
The figures are partly helped by the increasing numbers of expiring patents and efforts by insurers to tame the escalating healthcare costs. The trend of more generic use is poise to see greener patch due to some US$20 billion in annual sales will lose their patent protection. Proprietary drugs which will face the generic competition for the first time this year include MSD’s Fosamax and J&J’s antipsychotic Risperdal.
Major generic drug companies in the USA include Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the Sandoz unit of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG, and U.S.-based Mylan Inc.
Adapted from Bloomberg News
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