Building a modern generic drug review process

February 05, 2016 Acting FDA Commissioner Stephen Ostroff, MD, notes that recent hearings on Capitol Hill highlighted the issue of access to quality, affordable medicines, in particular generic drugs. “FDA’s generic drug program promotes access to quality...

Use of and barriers to access to opioid analgesics worldwide

February 05, 2016 A new analysis finds that use of opioid analgesics—which are critical for treating pain—increased significantly in North America, western and central Europe, and Oceania from 2001–13. The same was not true for Africa, Asia, Central America, South...

Seven $1 billion-plus drugs seen reaching market in 2016

February 05, 2016 A new Thomson Reuters report predicts there will be seven “blockbuster” drugs launched this year. While 2015 had 11 new blockbuster drugs, the forecast for drugs with at least $1 billion annual sales potential this year still bodes well...

Aspirin may protect against staph blood infections

February 05, 2016 A new study in Critical Care Medicine finds that taking daily low-dose aspirin may offer protection against death from a Staphylococcus aureus blood infection. Swiss scientists followed 838 cases of S. aureus infection from 2001 through 2013, and...