By: Elissa Tam, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – Patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes who cannot control their glucose levels simply by taking oral medications have to inject insulin daily. They also have to measure their glucose levels by using strips and lancets on a regular basis. For patients, especially elderly ones, the…

By: Melissa Roy Co-Copy Editor [Graphics focused] – Our dedicated preceptor Kimberly Defronzo, RPh, MS, MBA is currently a Consumer Safety Officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She attended the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy for her Bachelors of Pharmacy. She then went to St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Health…

By: Azia Tariq, Staff Editor – Truly personalized medication is the goal of researchers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. For example, when a patient requires a precise dose that is not manufactured as a tablet, the tablet will be broken up in order to deliver the dose as close as possible. Not only is…

By: Katharine Cimmino, Editor-in-Chief – Pressure ulcers can be a painful condition decreasing the quality of life of patients and prolonging hospital stays.1 About 10% of hospital inpatients and 26% of hospice admissions have pressure sores.2 Pressure ulcers are injuries that occur when pressure is applied for prolonged periods of time over bony prominences.1 There…

By: Daniel Mathan, PharmD Candidate c/o 2016, Anita Kachappilly, PharmD Candidate c/o 2016, & Amrita Singh, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects multiple organs in the body and can potentially become life threatening.1 The incidence of SLE is about 50 cases for every 100,000 people; it…

By: Fatema Elias, Staff Writer – With the New Year and everyone committing to their New Year resolutions, more and more patients are coming into the pharmacy asking for recommendations, particularly for weight loss dietary supplements. I hesitate to recommend an over-the-counter dietary supplement for weight loss. However, we as pharmacists and pharmacy students have…

By: Sherin Pathickal, PharmD Candidate c/o 2016 – Dengue Fever, widely known as “break-bone fever,” is an illness that causes pain in the joints and muscles, and is often described by those infected as comparable to the feeling of breaking a bone.1 It is spread by mosquitoes and has a painful array of symptomology such…

By: Jenny Park, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – On July 12, 2013, the FDA approved afatinib (GilotrifTM) as a new first-line treatment for patients with late-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a type of carcinoma where specific types of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations are expressed.1 The drug afatinib irreversibly blocks EGFR, also…

By: Ada Seldin, Staff Editor – On November 22, 2013, simeprevir (Olysio®), a new agent to treat chronic hepatitis C, received approval under the FDA’s priority review program. Simeprevir is an NS3/4A protease inhibitor that blocks the replication of the hepatitis C virus. Two other drugs from the same class, boceprevir and telaprevir, which were…

By: Neal Shah, PharmD, MD/PhD Student c/o 2021, West Virginia University School of Medicine – Methadone is a powerful long-acting mu-opioid agonist that has been traditionally used in the management of chronic pain, treatment of pain refractory to certain opioid agents, and maintenance of opioid addiction.1-5 While neuropathic pain is not traditionally linked to mu-opioid…

By: Rebecca Gilene, PharmD Candidate c/o 2014, St. Louis College of Pharmacy – The FDA approved macitentan (Opsumit®) on October 18, 2013 for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.1 Pulmonary arterial hypertension, often referred to as PAH, is a disease characterized by high blood pressure in the arteries between the heart and lungs. An increase…

By: Ada Seldin, Staff Editor – On August 12,2013, a new weapon against HIV-1 infection was added to the existing armada. Dolutegravir, the third integrase strand transfer inhibitor to attain FDA approval, targets a protein essential to HIV replication. HIV-1 is the predominant type of HIV virus, the other being HIV-2, which is endogenous to…

Samad Tirmizi, Pharm. D. Candidate c/o 2014 – Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a clot formation that occurs within deep veins, generally in the legs. This can cause swelling and pain due to the engorged vessels, and can eventually result in further complications such as a pulmonary embolism. Patients at high risk for DVT are…

By: Andy Zhang, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – On August 1st, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a new warning of serious acetaminophen associated skin reactions, including Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP).1 Acetaminophen is one of the most widely used over-the-counter (OTC) medication, and…

By: Nathan Trustman, PharmD Candidate c/o 2013, AMSCOP at LIU – Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or greater. It is thought to be the result of an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, possibly due to a number of genetic and environmental factors.1 It is estimated…

By: Tamara Yunusova, Senior Staff Editor – Approximately 3.2 million Americans have chronic hepatitis C infection.1 While acute cases are not common, rates of chronic hepatitis C continue to surge due to the recent discovery of the virus in 1989 and consequently, the establishment of a test screening for HCV antibodies in 1992.1 HCV has…

By: Erica Dimitropoulos, Senior Staff Editor – Lupus is highly unpredictable and occurs without warning; there is no known cause and no known cure. It affects over 1.5 million Americans, 90% of whom are women between the ages of 15 – 44.1 No two cases of lupus are alike, making it a very difficult disease…

By: Tasnima Nabi, Staff Editor – Merck & Co. will pay $688 million to settle two lawsuits filed in December 2008 over their patent-protected statin, Vytorin®.  The suits state that Merck and Schering-Plough delayed releasing the results of their ENHANCE study to avoid a decrease in revenue.1 Vytorin® is a combination drug of simvastatin and…

By: Jessica Lee, PharmD Candidate c/o 2013 – Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue, causing inflammation of the joints and potential harm to other organs.1  It affects 0.5-1% of the adult population and is more prevalent in the seventh decade of life.1  These patients tend to…

By: Shannon Tellier, PharmD Candidate c/o 2013 – Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome has been reported in all categories of antidepressants after an abrupt interruption of therapy.1  Symptoms usually occur within a few days of stopping or reducing the dosage of the antidepressant, and rarely occur with therapy of less than five weeks.1  If left untreated, most…

By: Neal Shah, Co-Editor-in-Chief – Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a last-line procedure in the treatment of refractory depression, among other neuropsychological disorders.1 By inducing a seizure, neurotransmitters are released and the disease state may feature a modest mitigation in symptoms.1 Seizure medications such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates are prescribed to increase or heighten the seizure…

By: Joo Hee Kwon, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 – There are 3 antigenic types of influenza: A, B, and C. Influenza C causes mild illness and therefore does not cause epidemics.  In contrast, influenza A and B are capable of causing mild to severe flu and in some cases death.  An epidemic can occur depending…

By: Addolorata Ciccone, Co-Copy Editor – Acute Coronary Syndromes Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a myocardial ischemia caused by obstruction of coronary arteries.  ACS is stratified into three types, based on electrocardiogram (EKG) changes and the presence of cardiac biomarkers (e.g. troponin, creatinine phosphokinase, and myoglobin).  To guide treatment plans, it is important to identify…

By: Lunbao Huang Pharm D. Candidate c/o 2013 – The seventh report of the Joint National Committee on high blood pressure (JNC-7) states that most classes of antihypertensive drugs such as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs), beta-blockers (BBs), diuretics, and aldosterone-receptor antagonists can be used for hypertensive heart failure patients except…

By: Alexandra Alleva, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 – On February 17, 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first medication indicated specifically for patients with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome, a hormone disorder characterized by elevated blood levels of cortisol.  Mifepristone (Korlym®) is for the treatment of glucose intolerance and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus…

By: Shannon Tellier – Medication related problems can be reduced in older adults if the Beers Criteria were utilized by health care professionals. The criteria serves as a guideline to identify potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) that should be avoided in the elderly population, but it should not replace clinical judgment. This 2012 update includes a…

By: Ebey P. Soman – The FDA recently approved a combination tablet of linagliptin with metformin hydrochloride (Jentadueto®) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.  Developed by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly, the new combination tablet provides a twice-daily treatment option for healthcare providers looking for greater flexibility in treating diabetes. Prescribers may add a…

By: Mohamed Dungersi – On February 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved important safety label changes for the class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.  Aligned with the FDA’s goal to provide the public with more information for the safe and effective use of statins, the agency made several modifications to the…

By: Mohamed Dungersi – On January 27, the FDA approved Bydureon® (exenatide extended-release) for use in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), as an adjunct to diet and exercise.  Bydureon®, a product of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, is a modified formulation of the twice-daily injection, Byetta® (exenatide).  It is the first once-a-week medication for T2DM in the market.…

By Lunbao (Jerry) Huang, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 – Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing focus on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, most commonly known as liver cancer).  In the United States, as of 2011, there have been an estimated 26,190 new cases and 19,590 deaths from both hepatic and intrahepatic bile duct cancer.  Defined by the…

By: Gokul Kalla, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 – Hypertension is a chronic disease that affects one out of every three Americans.  Leaving the condition untreated could increase the risk of serious health consequences such as a stroke or a heart attack.  On December 21, the FDA approved Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ Edarbyclor® (azilsartan medoxomil and chlorthalidone) for…

By Jena Marion, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 – On December 12, 2011, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) ruled to place carisoprodol (Soma®) into Schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).  Carisoprodol has been in use since it was approved for marketing in the U.S. in 1959 with the indication of “relief…

By: Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi – We have all heard the mortifying tales of recent attacks on pharmacies by addicts looking to steal prescription pain-killers. Most notable perhaps, was the case of David Laffers. Mr. Laffers walked into Haven Drugs in Medford, NY and killed the pharmacist, a store clerk, and two customers, who happened to…

By: Neal Shah – Part I:              Preface. Part II:             Brief review of cardiac electrophysiology. Part III:           Ivabradine as a novel If blocker for the use of stable angina. Part IV:           On the horizon: trimetazidine. – PREFACE When viewed anatomically, the heart may seem like a simple organ.  However, the electrophysiological aspects of the heart are…

By: Alisha Kumar, PharmD Candidate c/o 2012 – HIV transmission via organ transplantation is rare in the United States. However, after a public health investigation in 2010, a case of HIV transmission via kidney transplantation was confirmed. The kidney recipient had no history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), injection drug use, sex with injection drug…

By: Khilna Patel, PharmD Candidate c/o 2012 – Top academic achievement is a plus but is not the only thing to strive for – college is about developing one‘s self as a whole. There are many opportunities to get involved. Don‘t be afraid to try everything that may interest you because it will only bring…