Off-Label Drug Use: What Is It? You may be surprised to learn that you have probably been prescribed a medication “off-label” at one point or another by your doctor. Maybe you’ve heard of “off-label” drug use in the news, but what does this really mean? “Off-label” use of a drug refers to prescribing a medication […]
Drug Shortages: Has the FDA Response Made an Impact?
Rationing of much needed medications for patients is a scary thought for me as a healthcare professional. I can understand when an orphan drug may go in short supply for a rare disease, but when commonly used medications like antibiotics and intravenous fluids become scarce, I wonder what the forces are that cause this to […]
Harnessing the Power of the Poliovirus as a Cancer Cure
Polio, a highly infectious and crippling disease, was certainly one of the most feared viruses in the 20th century. Each year, thousands of children were left paralyzed. Polio has been successfully eliminated in the U.S. for decades due to a widespread vaccine program. So why would a group of researchers be interested in injecting the […]
Biosimilars in 2015: What Can We Expect?
On Friday, March 6th, 2015 the FDA approved Sandoz’s Zarxio, the first official biosimilar that will be made available in the U.S. Zarxio, a recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor used to boost white blood cells after cancer treatments, is the long-awaited biosimilar for filgrastim (Amgen’s Neupogen). The FDA noted in their briefs that Zarxio was “highly […]