News blog

ASHP is alerting pharmacists about the safety risks that unlabeled gluten in medications pose for patients with celiac disease, as part of USA Weekend’s Make a Difference Day. USA Weekend is partnering with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness to raise awareness about celiac disease during the newspaper’s Make a Difference Day 2007, the largest national day of community service. [click link for full article]

Hospira (NYSE: HSP), a leading global hospital products company, announced that it has received a “positive opinion” recommending European Union (EU) approval for Retacrit (epoetin zeta), a treatment for anemia associated with chronic renal failure and chemotherapy-induced anemia. Retacrit is a similar biologic — often referred to as a “biosimilar” in Europe or “biogeneric” in the United States — to epoetin alfa. [click link for full article]

The American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the national professional society of pharmacists, and Lexi-Comp, a leading provider of clinical content for the health care industry, have announced the release of Lexi-Comp® ONLINE? for Community Pharmacy. The online service, created to meet the particular needs of community pharmacists, is an affordable resource designed to provide answers to drug-related questions quickly and effectively. [click link for full article]

To make sure that the needs of doctors and patients are meet European drug regulations should be modified, say experts in an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), this week’s issue. [click link for full article]

AFP - Prime Minister John Howard is closing the gap on the opposition in Australia’s election battle after pledging multi-billion dollar tax cuts, two opinion polls showed Friday.

Reuters - Myanmar’s military junta has freed an
82-year-old member of the opposition National League for
Democracy who was sentenced to five years in jail for joining
protests against the regime last month.

AFP - Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik won the toss and elected to bat in the second one-day international against South Africa at the Gaddafi Stadium here.

AP - The bodies of two dozen people washed ashore Friday in southern Mexico, a state official said, after a boat believed to be carrying Central American migrants capsized in the Pacific Ocean.

AP - A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding nine, police said.

AFP - Cecilia Sarkozy said she and her former husband French President Nicolas Sarkozy had never lied about their marriage, in an interview that appears Saturday in the weekly magazine Elle.