The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), which reviews newly-licensed medicines, has published advice accepting four new medicines for routine use by NHS Scotland. Co-careldopa (Duodopa) for advanced Parkinson’s disease and blinatumomab (Blincyto) for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) were both accepted after consideration under SMC’s Patient and Clinician Engagement process (PACE) for medicines that treat end of [...]
One in three (32 per cent) women over 50 do not think cervical screening (smear tests) are part of the healthy upkeep of a woman’s body, and almost one in four (22 per cent) do not think they are important to have regularly according to new research by Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and Gransnet. Adding [...]
New research, by the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester, has revealed an ‘Achilles heel’ of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) and found drugs to successfully target this weakness and eradicate the disease in mice. The study, which is published in Nature today, analysed both CML and normal blood stem cells and found two proteins that were key to [...]
Cancer researchers are developing a bubbly drink packed with oxygen microbubbles to make treatments more potent for hard to treat tumours like pancreatic cancer. Researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Ulster, supported by Cancer Research UK, are investigating how to re-oxygenate tumours with a drink that could deliver extra oxygen to the site of [...]
A new cancer treatment, designed to make chemotherapy vastly more effective, is to be prepared for clinical trials by researchers at the University of Strathclyde. Scottish pharmaceutical company Ryboquin Ltd has raised £1.3 million of new funding to enable the research to be carried out at Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. The company’s [...]
Mylan NV recently announced the launch of Azacitidine for Injection, 100 mg/vial, which is a generic version of Celgene’s Vidaza® Injection, 100 mg/vial. Mylan received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for this product. Azacitidine for Injection is a nucleoside metabolic inhibitor indicated for [...]
A drug for breast cancer that is more effective than existing medicines may be a step closer, thanks to new research. Scientists have identified a chemical compound that is highly effective at blocking the growth of breast cancer cells in the laboratory. The compound – called eCF506 – targets a molecule called Src tyrosine kinase [...]
The number of people caring for someone with cancer in the UK has risen to almost 1.5 million; an increase of almost a third (31 per cent) in the past five years, according to new research from Macmillan Cancer Support. Family and friends are spending an average of 17.5 hours a week looking after a [...]
Following the announcement that Boots plans to offer in-store skin cancer checks and diabetes treatments, the Patients Association has spoken to www.pharmacy-life.co.uk about the ramifications this will have on the NHS. It has welcomed the role of highly-trained pharmacists on the high street in supporting doctors by providing advice to patients, but stresses the need [...]
People with advanced liposarcomas in Europe may now be able to receive Halaven(R) (eribulin), the first and only single agent therapy to show a significant survival advantage in this type of soft tissue sarcoma. The European Commission has approved a variation to the terms of the Marketing Authorisation (MA) of eribulin for the treatment of [...]
