SILVER SPRING, MD — VA is not immune to the effects of drug shortages, and even small problems in the drug pipeline can have serious effects on the department’s ability to get the right pharmaceutical to the right patient, VA officials said at a recent public hearing.

WASHINGTON — FDA needs the authority to keep foreign manufacturers who do not comply with regulatory requests from importing their products into the United States, agency officials are telling legislators.

WASHINGTON — The number of drug shortages reported annually has nearly tripled over the last five years, with much-needed drugs such as chemotherapy, anesthetics and electrolytes disproportionately affected.

Please read this article and participate in this month's online opinion poll about whether pharmaceutical manufacturers should be required to inform FDA six months in advance if they are discontinuing any drug?

WASHINGTON — Since taking office, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, has pushed for science to play a stronger role in the agency, both in the rationale for its decision-making and in meeting its basic purpose.

WASHINGTON — An antipsychotic medication commonly used by VA to treat combat-related PTSD has been found to have no discernible benefit. Patients taking the drug risperidone (Risperdal) did no better than those taking a placebo, according to a recent VA-run study.

WASHINGTON — Gentian violet (pronounced jen-shen) is not a compound familiar to most modern medical practitioners. Developed in the middle of the 19^th century, this combination of pararosanilines used as a component in dyes was eventually discovered to have antiseptic properties. Through the early part of the 20^th century, it was prescribed by physicians for simple infections and commonly used by mothers to treat thrush in infants.

WASHINGTON — Despite widespread warnings by federal health agencies about the dangers of antibiotic resistance, there are significant gaps in how HHS monitors those infections, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the first draft of the human genome, which was officially completed in 2003 with the mapping of 3.1 billion base pairs.

The VA's pharmacist-led anticoagulation units use diligent monitoring and constant overview of patient compliance to keep Warfarin patients’ International Normalized Ratio at a safe level. Despite that success, their future role may be in question because of a new class of medications that doesn’t require routine laboratory monitoring as well as a move toward home-monitoring for Warfarin.

New research suggests that early adoption of insulin can improve long-term outcomes in type 2 diabetes patients. Most practice guidelines, including the VA/DoD guideline, which was updated last summer, still call for oral medication, primarily metformin, as first-line treatment. Insulin currently is reserved for early-stage patients with contraindications or difficult-to-control symptoms, but the introduction of basal insulins, which allow patients to more safety and easily initiate insulin, could mean changes in practice in the near future.