Zetia “has been on the market for about seven years and we still haven’t proven that it improves clinical outcomes,” said Roger Blumenthal, preventive cardiology chief at Johns Hopkins University. The results will be “very influential” in getting more doctors to turn to Niaspan, he said.

Doctors say that the study results are not conclusive and that users should not stop taking there prescribed medication. In a report from Reuters, Dr. Paul Armstrong of the University of Alberta in Edmonton said he received an email from a patient early Monday morning asking if she should stop taking Zetia even though it was having the intended effect on her LDL levels.

Doctors say not to worry if the medicine is having its intended affects, but to be cautious if any side affects are experienced and don’t hesitate to contact your doctor for consultation.

“The evidence is insufficient to compare the efficacy and adverse effects” of the drugs because “few head-to-head trials are available,” the guidelines say. This lack of evidence comparing one drug against another is familiar. Companies often launch studies comparing new drugs to placebos, rather than to existing drugs; without head-to-head trials, it can be tough to know how competing drugs stack up.

A report by the WSJ has said that since there is not sufficient evidence of one ED drug being more affective than another, most doctors are prescribing brands based on price.

According to our database, Viagra comes in first with the cheapest price per pill at $1.60, followed by Cialis at $1.90 per pill, and Levitra at $2.23 per pill.

So when you go to talk to your doctor about beginning a treatment for ED remember: All the major brands will work with the same efficacy, so get your prescription for the cheapest one.

The deal will also give Abbott sole possession TriCor, which competes with Antara and Lofibra in the highly competitive cholesterol drug market. Last year TriCor had over $1.3 billion in sales.

In addition to TriCor, Abbott will also receive full ownership of Solvay’s drugs for hormone replacement, hypertension, as well as other neurological conditions.

According to the New York Times,

Pending health care legislation in Congress is not considered a deterrent for pharmaceutical acquisitions, because the drug makers are expected to do well in whatever emerges from Washington. The industry has a potentially winning political argument that its drugs prevent disease and save medical costs. And the industry stands to benefit from the addition of tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured, under a health care overhaul.

Abbott’s patent on TriCor is set to expire soon, which means generic, less expensive versions of TriCor will be available. Abbott will then face the challenge of switching consumers over to the new drug Trilipix. This means that Abbott will throw all of it’s marketing behind Trilipix, and try and dupe consumers into buying a medication that is no more affective, yet much more expensive.

Good news for GlaxoSmithKline, bad news for Merck.

Merck is the owner of Gardasil, the only cervical cancer vaccination that is currently available on the market.

According to MSNBC,

London-based drugmaker Glaxo already has won approval for its vaccine in Europe, but its U.S. launch was delayed in 2007 when the FDA said it needed more data about the vaccine.

Panelists say newer studies suggest the vaccine is safe, but they recommend follow-up studies to monitor miscarriages and inflammatory-muscular problems reported by a small number of patients.

The group said it was unlikely those problems were related to the vaccine, but said the issues should still be noted on the product labeling.

I am not so sure that the FDA was as concerned with the safety of the vaccine as they were with protecting Merck’s profits. Gardasil sales, which reached $1.5 billion in 2007 would have taken a huge hit.

Gardasil and Cervarix both defend against the two most prevalent strains of HPV 16 and 18. These two strains are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.

While Johnson & Johnson claims the cream eliminates the infection that causes athlete’s foot, clinical trials have shown it to be only modestly effective against tinea. The ads included claims such as “Tinea Stops Here” and “Crush. Kill. Destroy.”

So, what exactly is athlete’s foot — and what medication is your best choice for treating it?

Athlete’s foot is a fungal infection that can lead to intense itching, cracked skin, scaling and redness. It can occur on wet skin especially between the toes, or on dry skin around the heels and rest of the foot.

Your best treatment option depends on the condition’s type and severity. In many cases, athlete’s foot can be treated effectively by over-the-counter topical medications like Lamisil AT, Micatin, Lotrimin AF or Tinactin.

For more severe cases or those that don’t respond to OTC remedies, prescription topicals are the next option. These include Naftin, Mentax, Monistat Derm, Lotrimin and Ertaczo.

When your athlete’s foot doesn’t respond to topical medications, your doctor may prescribe oral antifungal pills, such as Lamisil, Sporanox, and Diflucan.

Which treatment is best for you? There are a large number of antifungal medications on the market, with different active ingredients, so the options are many. One study did find that so-called allylamines (such as Lamisil and Naftin) cured more athlete’s foot infections than azoles (such as Ertaczo and Lotrimin).

As always, however, your best option is to consult with your doctor based on your individual symptoms.

Source

Unfortunately, this is a nightmare that many legitimate Canadian pharmacies are living today.

As ITBusiness.ca reports:

“To most people, ‘Canadian Pharmacy’ means just another spam e-mail message promising cheap Viagra pills that is deleted in microseconds – but to David Zimmer, it’s a reputation nightmare for his business.

“Zimmer is the owner of Winnipeg-based The Canadian Pharmacy, a small company that legitimately sells pharmaceuticals over the Internet to American customers…

“But when his company is confused with the almost identically-named spammer group, his reputation takes a drubbing. ‘It’s a big pain for us,’ he says. He says he gets inundated with complaints from angry victims of these spammers who haven’t received their medication.”

The most frustrating part is, these spam operations aren’t based in Canada at all. The biggest, in fact, is the Russian-based organization that calls itself “Canadian Pharmacy.” It sends as many as 60 billion spam e-mails per day. It has been known to ship counterfeit and adulterated medications to unwitting consumers who order from its many sites.

Says Zimmer:

“I’ve considered changing our brand,” he says. “When people confuse us with Canadian Pharmacy, that hurts our ability to market ourselves by word of mouth.”

It doesn’t help matters that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has taken advantage of the confusion and tried to tar legitimate pharmacies with the same brush as rogue spammers — a dishonest but effective PR ploy that has duped more than a few members of the U.S. news media.

You would think the problem of e-mail spam from so-called Canadian pharmacies (which are actually fronts for criminal organizations in Russia and elsewhere) couldn’t get worse.

Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.

According to the latest data from McAfee and MX Logic:

Both security firms see “pharmaceutical spam,” at almost 90% of all spam, as the single largest type of spam in terms of content, with one in particular, known as Canadian Pharmacy, the undisputed dominant force.

Criminals sending spam rely on hijacked “zombie” machines that have been taken over by malware, and the number of zombies around the world is said to be rising by an estimated 150,000 every day. “In the U.S. alone, there are 2.1 million new zombies, up 33% from the last period,” the McAfee report states. McAfee estimates there are a total 14 million computers “enslaved by cybercriminal botnets.”

Researchers also said that more than 90 percent of all e-mail can be classified as spam — which would suggest that more than 80 percent of ALL e-mails are pharmacy spam.

ScamWatch, an Australian government Web site dedicated to protecting consumers, offers the following five warning signs that you’ve received a pharmacy spam e-mail –

1. You receive an unsolicited email offering cheap or hard-to-get pills or treatments. Often, these emails will promote well-known drugs such as Prozac or Viagra.

2. The subject title of the email has nothing to do with the products on offer.

3. The words in the email are spelt incorrectly or have apostrophes and spaces in the middle of the words. This is done to try to avoid anti-spam filters.

4. The email or website will sell you drugs that you would normally need a prescription for, even if you don’t have a prescription.

5. The pharmacy’s website is based overseas or does not include a contact telephone number or street address.

The site also recommends the follow seven ways to protect yourself –

1. Use your common sense: the offer may be a scam.

2. Be very careful about offers for medicines, supplements or other treatments: always seek the advice of your health care professional.

3. Do not open suspicious or unsolicited emails (spam): delete them.

4. Do not click on any links in a spam email, or open any files attached to them.

5. Never call a telephone number that you see in a spam email.

6. Check the website address carefully. Scammers often set up fake websites with very similar addresses.

7. Never enter your personal, credit card or online account information on a website that you are not certain is genuine.

When it comes to Canadian pharmacies, a seal isn’t technically necessary for a pharmacy to be above board.  All the pharmacy needs is the approval of its provincial government, which inspects pharmacies and awards the legitimate ones with licenses.  You can generally verify that a pharmacy has a license by visiting the appropriate Canadian government Web site.

However, to make things easier for you, a number of verification authorities have emerged that do this work for you.  Here is an overview of these verification authorities:

PharmacyChecker.com.  PharmacyChecker.com is the verification authority that Google uses in determining what pharmacies are allowed to advertise on its network.  PharmacyChecker ensures that a pharmacy Web site dispenses through a licensed pharmacy; that it has a valid address and phone number on its site; that it protects the privacy of your personal medical information; and that it also protects your financial information.  

CIPA.  The Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) was formed in 2002 to represent licensed Canadian pharmacies that sell prescription drugs to Americans by mail order. CIPA is the only national association of international pharmacies in Canada. CIPA members are licensed brick and mortar pharmacies that fill prescriptions for both Canadian and American patients.  CIPA has testified before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures to promote legalizing the cross-border trade and to address safety issues.

MIPA.   The Manitoba International Pharmacists Association (MIPA) is a professional association of licensed pharmacists, pharmacy students, and others dedicated to the provision of safe and affordable distance care for the improvement of health and well being of individuals of all ages from around the world. MIPA offers accreditation to licensed mail-order and Internet pharmacies based in the Canadian province of Manitoba.

All of these organizations do a wonderful job, and a Canadian pharmacy Web site that legitimately carries one of their seals is worthy of your patronage.

Unfortunately, many scam pharmacies, such as no prescription pharmacies, carry seals fraudulently, or create fake seals from non-existent verification organizations.

Here’s an example of a legitimate CIPA seal (top) and a fake seal (bottom):

 
You can be assured that all Canadian pharmacies in our network have been verified by PharmacyChecker as well as CIPA and/or MIPA.  We’ll show you how to confirm the legitimacy and license of every pharmacy in our network.

Once you join us, you’ll never have to worry about your safety when ordering online again.

Don’t take chances — join today!

That’s right. No-prescription pharmacy scammers are using Michael Jackson’s death as the bait in their latest spam e-mail campaigns.

According to the Xinhua news agency:

Computer security firms are warning users to be vigilant about spam messages capitalizing on the sudden death of U.S. pop star Michael Jackson. Security firm Sophos … reported that about eight hours after Jackson’s death, its experts witnessed the first wave of spam messages taking advantage of the breaking news in the subject line and body of the email.

In these messages, the spammers claimed that they have vital information about the death of Michael Jackson to share and asked for a reply … [Experts] said users should be wary of spam emails offering links to “news” or “pictures” of deceased celebrities, which most of the time will lead to websites touting pharmacy products …

The spammers have outdone themselves again.