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: Hayeon Na, Co-Copy Editor [Content-Focused] – On October 8th of 2013, Bayer’s new drug riociguat (Adempas®) was approved for the treatment of patients whose pulmonary hypertension (PH) belongs in WHO groups 1 and 4.1 Riociguat (Adempas®) is a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator, and currently the only one of its kind on the market.…

By: Ada Seldin, Staff Editor – Since the first release of the Surgeon General’s Report on smoking 50 years ago, it has become clear that smoking results in premature death and a myriad of diseases, affecting almost every organ system. Public health initiatives to increase awareness, prevent initiation, and promote smoking cessation have been marginally…

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: 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: Jenny Park, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – Lung cancer takes away the lives of about 160,000 individuals annually, which is more than a quarter of all cancer deaths.1 The U.S Preventive Service Task Force is now recommending lung cancer screenings for heavy smokers which could save up to 20,000 lives a year (or about 13%…

By: Katharine Cimmino, Editor-in-Chief & Bharat Kirthivasan, Co-Copy Editor – Frank A. Barile Ph.D. is a Professor of Clinical and Applied Toxicology at St. John’s University.  He is also a St. John’s University alumnus, having received a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Science, an M.S. in Toxicology, and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology.  At St. John’s University, Dr.…

By: Efime Popovitz, BS/MD Candidate, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education – When Sarah Murnaghan received the long awaited adult lung after years of battling cystic fibrosis, she not only narrowly escaped her death sentence, but also brought to light a plight that thousands of individuals face each day- a struggle for the opportunity to…

By: Diana Gritsenko, Pharm D. Candidate c/o 2015 – Most of us who work in a community pharmacy setting will usually get a few scripts a month for an Epi-pen™.  An Epi-pen™ is a device that autoinjects epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into a patient who is experiencing anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic…

By: Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi, Associate Student Editor – Many of us have prepared for influenza season by receiving the flu vaccine.  (If you have not, please speak to your doctor or pharmacist soon!  Remember: even if you do not need it for your protection, get it for your patients’ well-being).  However, for the youngest members…

By: Addolorata Ciccone, Student Copy Editor – As a fifth-year pharmacy student researching and ranking advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) sites, I felt excited at the prospect of taking the knowledge and skills I obtained in the classroom and applying it to real world patients and scenarios.  My years of work in community pharmacies were…

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: Neal Shah – Defined by the Joint National Committee, hypertension (HTN) is a systolic blood pressure (SBP) greater than or equal to 140 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure (DBP) greater than or equal to 90 mmHg.  Patients with Stage 1 HTN have a SBP between 140 and 159 mmHg and DBP between 90…