Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States announced a serious safety concern on the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for the treatment of 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) due to abnormal heart rhythms like QT prolongation and ventricular tachycardia. Currently, there are no medicines proven effective for the treatment of COVID-19. On 28‑Mar‑2020, FDA released…
European Medicines Agency’s (EMA’s) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) recommended a test for identification of the “lack or inadequate presence of an enzyme, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD)” in the body before receiving treatment with fluorouracil (by injection or infusion) and the its prodrugs which included capecitabine and tegafur (these drugs are converted to fluorouracil in the body)…
In a new release from European Medicines Agency (EMA), Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) stated that ingenol mebutate may increase the risk of skin cancer and concluded that risks for ingenol mebutate medicine are greater than its benefits. On 09-May-2019, PRAC initiated the procedure of review for assessing the benefit risk profile for ingenol mebutate…
The Malaysian Health Authority-National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), Ministry of Health Malaysia released the following new drug safety alerts. Drug Safety Alert 1: Risk of anaphylaxis associated with Guselkumab use Drug Safety Alert 2: Kounis syndrome associated with Intravenous iron-containing products Drug Safety Alert 3: Reports of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection or reactivation with Nivolumab use…
A medicine with negative benefit to risk ratio has withdrawn from the US market. (Belviq) lorcaserin is a weight loss medication developed by Arena Pharmaceuticals approved for treating obesity together with diet and exercise in adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater (obese), or adults with a BMI of 27 or…
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global pandemic which is affecting human beings with an acute respiratory infectious illness by damaging multiple organ systems, including heart, lung, and blood. Most adults with COVID-19 experience fever, cough, and fatigue and then recover within one to three weeks. However, it becomes fatal for some patients who develop severe…
A medicine having been considered as “Safe” since 1981 is recalled from the drug market. It’s not a surprise on recall of a drug from market which has an “assumed established safety profile”. Ranitidine, popularly known to public as Zantac, is a very common OTC (over the counter) drug and prescription stomach acid blocker widely…
Ingenol mebutate, which is commonly known as milkweed is indicated for the cutaneous treatment of non-hyperkeratotic, non‑hypertrophic actinic keratosis in adults. The health authority of Ireland has cautioned patients and health care professionals on the use of this product in patients having history of skin cancer. It was reported in a randomized study results in…