By: Katharine Cimmino, Editor-in-Chief – Many articles and quick one-line stories have been cropping up on the internet boasting the benefits of drinking wine regularly.  While headlines such as, “Drinking a Glass of Red Wine is the same as Getting an Hour of Exercise, Says New Study,” may make readers ecstatic that their drinking habits…

By Davidta Brown, Senior Staff Editor – The idea of granting pharmacists the right to prescribe, as well as to counsel and dispense, has long been a source of controversy among healthcare professionals. A study out of the University of Alberta in Canada, published online in mid-April, provided some much needed concrete data for an…

By: Amrita Singh, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – Last November, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released new lipid guidelines, which will transform the way we manage our patients with hyperlipidemia. Earlier, lipid management was based on the ATP-III guidelines, which emphasized the use of several lipid-lowering medications to reach target…

By: Sang Hyo Kim, Staff Editor – On March 29th 2013, the U.S Food and Drug Administration approved canagliflozin (Invokana®), a new form of a diabetic drug for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.1 Canagliflozin is in a new class of medications called sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and is the only oral, once-daily…

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: Maria A. Sorbera, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 –   Maria Sorbera was the 2011-2012 President of the Rho Chi Beta Theta Chapter at the Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy at Long Island University (LIU). She is a strong advocate of networking with fellow pharmacists regardless of their area of expertise, as well…

By: Nagma Gargi, Pharm D. Candidate 2013 – Traditionally, lipid panels are drawn under fasting conditions. Is there data supporting decreased accuracy in a non-fasting lipid panel? Cholesterol is an essential tool for our body for the synthesis of hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids. However, an excess of cholesterol pose a serious threat to…

By: Yufan (Frank) Liu, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013 – Results of numerous epidemiological studies have indicated that having high serum cholesterol can lead to coronary heart disease (CHD). 1 More specifically having high LDL cholesterol puts patients at risk for angina and heart attack.2 To reduce this risk HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, also known as statins,…