Search Results (10)

The use of generic medicines (GEs) is being promoted to reduce healthcare costs. This study aims to evaluate the effect of a pharmacist-led educational intervention on the number of patients switching from brand-name medicines to GEs among patients who preferred brand-name products. Pharmacists provided a standardized explanation using pamphlets about GEs to patients who wished to use brand-name medicines and allocated time to answer questions. Basic knowledge about GEs (nine items) and perceptions of GE use (three items) were assessed before and after the intervention to determine whether changes influenced switching behavior. Between 1 March and 30 July 2025, 40 patients were enrolled in the analysis. Following the intervention, the number of patients using one or more brand-name medicines significantly decreased to 25. Knowledge and perceptions of GEs significantly increased after the intervention and were associated with an increased rate of switching to GEs. Binominal logistic regression analysis identified age ≥ 65 years as a strong factor associated with preference for brand-name medicines (OR, 16.45; 95% CI, 1.48–182.65; p = 0.02). These findings indicate that pharmacist-led educational interventions are effective in promoting GE use among patients who prefer brand-name medicines. In the future, we plan to conduct comparative studies with a control group to further investigate the factors that lead to patients strongly preferring the use of brand-name medicines. Full article

Background: The evaluation of internationally comparable indicators of medicine use is important to devise strategies to promote the rational use of medicines (RUM). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital from January to June 2024. Prescriptions were collected from the outpatient pharmacy using systematic random sampling and analyzed for WHO/INRUD core prescribing indicators, index of rational drug prescribing (IRDP) and completeness (general, treatment and prescribers’ details). Results: Out of 844 prescriptions collected, 607 were analyzed. A total of 1837 drugs were prescribed, with a mean (SD) of 3.03 (1.51) drugs per prescription; 1378 (75%) drugs were prescribed as generic names; 125 prescriptions (20.59%) had an antibiotic prescribed; and injectables were given in 7 (1.15%) prescriptions. Of the total 1837 drugs, 1018 (55.4%) were mentioned in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2022, while 934 (50.8%) were included in the Haryana state essential medicines list (2013–2014). The IRDP was calculated as 3.86. The mean (SD) completeness score of the prescriptions was 10.33 (0.8) (range 5 to 11). Conclusions: There was a high incidence of polypharmacy, brand name and non-essential drug prescribing, while antibiotic and injection use were in accordance with WHO standards. Full article

Diabetes mellitus is a complex, multifactorial, progressive condition with a variety of approved therapeutic options. The purpose of this study was to offer an overview of the authorized antidiabetic medicines (excluding insulin) compared with marketed products in seven European countries. Data were obtained from primary sources, including the websites of national authorities and directly from specialists in the countries of interest. The range of marketed medicines compared with the authorized group was assessed in terms of active pharmaceutical ingredients (>60% in Bulgaria, France, Serbia), brand names (>70% in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Spain), pharmaceutical forms (>60% in all countries), strengths (>60% in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Spain), marketing authorization holder (≥50% in all countries) and the status of medicine. Spain was found to have the highest number of products based on most of these attributes. Over 90% of authorized medicines had a pharmacy price in Serbia. Regarding the newer class of GLP-1 receptor agonists, a retail price for all approved substances was available in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Spain. Only one brand name with one concentration was found available for some agents, being susceptible to drug shortages: glibenclamide (Romania, Serbia, Spain), glipizide (the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Spain), glisentide (Spain), acarbose (the Czech Republic), sitagliptin (Bulgaria, Poland), vildagliptin (the Czech Republic, Poland) and saxagliptin (the Czech Republic, France, Romania, Serbia). An overview of the national and international therapeutic options may allow competent authorities and health professionals to take rapid measures in case of supply problems or health crises. Full article

Virtual cross-border medical tourism allows many residents in the United States to purchase brand name medicines from companies in Mexico without travelling there. Monthly economic reports indicate that the online brand name pharmaceutical product prices in Mexico are noticeably lower than the corresponding internet prices in the United States. There have been very few econometric studies on how these prices are linked and the dynamic nature of those relationships. Results in this study indicate that online medicine prices in Mexico respond very rapidly to online prices changes in the high-price market. Full article

Noni juice, obtained from the fruit of the noni tree (Morinda citrifolia L.), is a popular commodity in the market, particularly in the South Pacific. It is widely used by consumers for the prevention of several lifestyle diseases. Although there is increasing interest in the potential therapeutic use of noni plants, there are no comparative studies on the various commercialized noni fruit juices available to decipher their phytochemical composition and properties against carcinomas. The present study, therefore, aims to fill this research gap and investigate the juice’s anecdotal use as complementary alternative medicine to manage cancer. Five commercial brands of noni juice were included in this study, namely, Tahitian Organic Noni (TON), Cook Island Noni (CIN), Dynamic Health Noni (DHN), Fijian Noni (FN), and Life Health Noni (LHN). The juice samples were vacuum-filtered and freeze-dried to obtain crystal products for methanolic extraction. Total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant capacity (FRAP—ferric reducing antioxidant power) were determined on the methanolic extracts. The cytotoxicity of the noni juices was also tested on human cervical adenocarcinoma (HeLa cell lines) by dissolving 2 mg of the crystal product in sterile deionized water and diluting to 1000 μg/mL in the media culture. The final concentration of the extracts in the well plate was 500 μg/mL. The MTS cell viability assay was performed after the cells were incubated with the extracts for 48 h at 37 °C with 5% CO₂. The DHN and FN extracts were found to have the highest TPC of 5393 ± 298 and 5060 ± 23 mg gallic acid equivalent /100 g dry weight (DW), respectively, whereas the highest antioxidant capacity was seen in the CIN extract (6389 ± 49 mg Trolox equivalent/100 g DW). The CIN extract also showed the most promising effect with only 63 ± 1% cell viability, whilst the other extracts showed lower cytotoxic effects (76–90% cell viability) on the HeLa cell line. It is possible that greater cytotoxicity could be observed over long exposure times. The noni juice samples contain high levels of TP and antioxidant capacity and appear to show some level of cytotoxic activity, which were statistically different from the negative control. Further work involving more extensive in vitro and in vivo studies are necessary to elucidate its anticarcinogenic activities. Full article

Steatosis is characterized by excessive triglycerides accumulation in liver cells. Recently, application of herbal formulations has gained importance in treating complex diseases. Therefore, this study explores the efficacy of tri-herbal medicine Divya Sarva-Kalp-Kwath (SKK; brand name, Livogrit) in treating free fatty acid (FFA)-induced steatosis in human liver (HepG2) cells and rat primary hepatocytes. Previously, we demonstrated that cytosafe SKK ameliorated CCl₄-induced hepatotoxicity. In this study, we evaluated the role of SKK in reducing FFA-induced cell-death, and steatosis in HepG2 through analysis of cell viability, intracellular lipid and triglyceride accumulation, extracellular free glycerol levels, and mRNA expression changes. Plant metabolic components fingerprinting in SKK was performed via High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC). Treatment with SKK significantly reduced the loss of cell viability induced by 2 mM-FFA in a dose-dependent manner. SKK also reduced intracellular lipid, triglyceride accumulation, secreted AST levels, and increased extracellular free glycerol presence in the FFA-exposed cells. SKK normalized the FFA-stimulated overexpression of SREBP1c, FAS, C/EBPα, and CPT1A genes associated with the induction of steatosis. In addition, treatment of rat primary hepatocytes with FFA and SKK concurrently, reduced intracellular lipid accumulation. Thus, SKK showed efficacy in reducing intracellular triglyceride accumulation and increasing extracellular glycerol release, along with downregulation of related key genetic factors for FFA-associated steatosis. Full article

In the early 20th century, a series of epidemics across equatorial Africa brought African sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis, HAT) to the attention of the European colonial administrations. This disease presented an exciting challenge for microbiologists across Europe to study the disease, discover the pathogen and search for an effective treatment. In 1923, the first “remedy for tropical diseases”—Suramin—manufactured by Bayer AG came onto the market under the brand name “Germanin.” The development and life cycle of this product—which today is still the medicine of choice for Trypanosoma brucei (T.b), hodesiense infections—reflect medical progress as well as the successes and failures in fighting the disease in the context of historic political changes over the last 100 years. Full article

Severe asthma is an extremely heterogeneous clinical syndrome in which diverse cellular and molecular pathobiologic mechanisms exist, namely endotypes. The current system for endotyping severe asthma is largely based on inflammatory cellular profiles and related pathways, namely the dichotomy of type 2 response (resulting in eosinophilic inflammation) and non-type 2 response (reinforcing non-eosinophilic inflammation involving neutrophils or less inflammatory cells), forming the basis of a development strategy for novel therapies. Although specific subgroups of type 2 severe asthma patients may derive benefit from modern precision medicine targeting type 2 cytokines, there is no approved and effective therapeutic agent for non-type 2 severe asthma, which comprises nearly 50% of all asthma patients. Importantly, the critical implication of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and unfolded protein response—in close relation with several pivotal cellular immune/inflammatory platforms including mitochondria, NLRP3 inflammasome, and phosphoinositide 3-kinase-δ—in the generation of corticosteroid resistance is now being increasingly demonstrated in numerous experimental settings of severe asthma. Consistent with these findings, recent clinical data from a large European severe asthma cohort, in which molecular phenotyping as well as diverse clinical and physiological parameters from severe asthmatic patients were incorporated, suggest a brand new framework for endotyping severe asthma in relation to ER-associated mitochondria and inflammasome pathways. These findings highlight the view that ER stress-associated molecular pathways may serve as a unique endotype of severe asthma, and thus present a novel insight into the current knowledge and future development of treatment to overcome corticosteroid resistance in heterogeneous severe asthma. Full article

In countries where the private clinics of physicians can be freely named, registering a clinic with a physician’s name is one way to make patients familiar with the physician. No previous study had investigated how clinics make use of this method of personal branding. Therefore, the current study analyzed 10,847 private physician Western medicine clinics in Taiwan. Of those clinics, 31.0% (n = 3363) were named with a physician’s full name, 8.9% (n = 960) with a surname, and 8.1% (n = 884) with a given name. The proportion of clinics registered with a physician’s name was lower in rural areas (37.3%) than in urban (48.5%) and suburban areas (49.2%), respectively. Among clinics with only one kind of specialist, a physician’s name was used most frequently in clinics of obstetrics and gynecology (64.9%), otorhinolaryngology (64.1%), and dermatology (63.4%). In Taiwan, fewer than half of clinics used a physician’s name as a brand. The sociocultural or strategic factors and real benefits of doing so could be further studied in the future for a better understanding of healthcare services management. Full article

As a traditional Miao-nationality medicinal plant, Polygonum capitatum has been used in clinical practice for several thousand years. Its prescriptions, including three dosage forms: granules, capsule and tablet are known by the brand name Relinqing^® and have played an indispensable role in the treatment of urinary system infection, pyelonephritis and kidney stones. However, no study about the comprehensive quality evaluation of Relinqing^® has been reported. In the present paper, a method for the simultaneous determination of nine major compounds in three dosage forms of Relinqing^® using HPLC coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-QQQ MS) was established to comprehensively evaluate their quality. The nine compounds, including four phenolic acids, four flavonoids and a lignin, were analyzed with acceptable linear regression relationship (r², 0.9923–0.9992), precision (RSD, 1.25%–2.78%), repeatability (RSD, 2.05%%–3.47%), stability (RSD, 1.84%–3.72%) and recovery (93.60%–108.54%, RSD ≤ 3.67%). The present study fills the gap in the multivariate quality control of Relinqing^® and provides a valuable reference for quality standards and dosage reforming of this traditional Chinese medicine. Full article