Drugs to alleviate symptoms; drugs to prolong life; drugs to counteract side effects of other drugs. Doctors’ prescribing powers in the face of illness have never been greater, and patients’ lists of medicines to take have never been longer. By the time you are receiving care in a nursing home, it is quite likely that […]
Read More… from Popping pills, doing drugs: the nurse’s drug round
The debate about whether homeopathy should be available on the NHS invariably sees the opposing sides citing numerous research papers in support of their argument. Both sides will claim their evidence to be the most reliable, while condemning that of their opponents as seriously flawed. I’m sure for many people this resembles two crusty old […]
Heart transplant rejection Last year there were 145 heart transplant operations carried out in the UK, which is a life-saving treatment for people with acute heart failure. People who have undergone this procedure do need to take drugs that suppress the immune system for the rest of their lives or their bodies will reject the […]
The morning after the night before. Before you even open your eyes you can feel the familiar throbbing behind one eye that follows a night of one too many drinks. It slowly intensifies into a full-blown pounding of your entire cranium, the source of which seems to be a miniature sledgehammer repeatedly smacking your skull from […]
Scientists have revealed that a key molecule in breast and lung cancer cells can help switch off the cancers’ ability to spread around the body. The findings by researchers at Imperial College London, published in the journal EMBO Reports, may help scientists develop treatments that prevent cancer travelling around the body – or produce some kind of test […]
Read More… from ‘Silencer molecules’ switch off cancer’s ability to spread around body
Meningitis B (MenB), a virulent bacterium, causes the majority of cases of bacterial meningitis in the UK and Europe as well as elsewhere in the world including the US and Canada. Fortunately, there is now an effective vaccine – Bexsero – which was licensed by the European Medicines Agency in 2013. Last year (2015), the […]
Read More… from MenB – will Parliament cede to a million petitioners?
Evidence-based medicine and ‘value for money’ are two of medicine’s Mum and apple pie principles. But like other principles they are all too readily discarded when they conflict with harsh commercial realities – by which of course I mean drug company interests. Watching the contortions involved in demonstrating that abandoning them do not involve disrespecting […]
AM-111 – this is an experimental drug, developed by Auris Medical for people with acute inner ear hearing loss, which is a type of sensorineural hearing loss affecting the cochlea, which is the main hearing organ in the ear. This type of hearing loss can occur suddenly, within three days, as a result of sudden […]
We have discovered and developed a new anti-viral drug (SNG001) that could potentially help reduce the number of hospital admissions for asthma, bronchitis and emphysema as well as potentially reduce deaths in these patients triggered by respiratory viruses such as the common cold or influenza. Our company Synairgen, founded by Professors at the University of Southampton to […]
A pharmacologist’s view of progress in gastrointestinal medicine over the past 30 years. As a pharmacologist working in the Pharmaceutical industry for over thirty years, I have been witness to some key developments, particularly in the field of gastrointestinal (GI) medicine. In this article I would like to highlight the changes that have occurred both […]