{"id":344,"date":"2011-07-01T14:01:49","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T14:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/?p=344"},"modified":"2012-03-12T14:15:29","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T14:15:29","slug":"news-and-updates-from-www-palliativedrugs-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/2011\/07\/01\/news-and-updates-from-www-palliativedrugs-com\/","title":{"rendered":"News and updates from www.palliativedrugs.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Selected items from the News and Latest Additions sections of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/\">www.palliativedrugs.com<\/a> , the world\u2019s leading palliative care website.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Drug Updates<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Clarifying dexamethasone prescribing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The British National Formulary now recommends prescribing of dexamethasone injection as dexamethasone <em>base. <\/em>This follows recent changes to the labeling of both UK dexamethasone injection products (Organon product, 2003 and Hospira product June 2010) in line with guidance from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and National Patient Safety Agency. In order to clarify the label changes and highlight the potential for confusion when swapping between products, <em>www.palliativedrugs.com<\/em> has produced a fact sheet which can be downloaded <a title=\"Link to PDF article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/dexamethasone_changes_V03_101112_aw%5B1%5D_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">from here<\/a>.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/dexamethasone_changes_V03_101112_aw%5B1%5D_final.pdf\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/dexamethasone_changes_V03_101112_aw%5B1%5D_final.pdf\"> <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/dexamethasone_changes_V03_101112_aw%5B1%5D_final.pdf\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>UK national shortage of lorazepam 4mg\/mL injection <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An unexpected manufacturing issue has left lorazepam injection 4mg\/mL (Ativan, Pfizer) in short supply in the UK, which is not expected to be resolved until late 2011. For more information, <a title=\"Link to PDF article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/Ativan%20Injection%20DoH%20update%20letter%20Dec%202010%20signed%20-%20shortage%20alert.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/Ativan%20Injection%20DoH%20update%20letter%20Dec%202010%20signed%20-%20shortage%20alert.pdf\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/Ativan%20Injection%20DoH%20update%20letter%20Dec%202010%20signed%20-%20shortage%20alert.pdf\"> <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.palliativedrugs.com\/download\/Ativan%20Injection%20DoH%20update%20letter%20Dec%202010%20signed%20-%20shortage%20alert.pdf\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Actiq SPC updated<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The UK <a title=\"Link to article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.medicines.org.uk\/EMC\/medicine\/11145\/SPC\/Actiq\" target=\"_blank\">SPC<\/a> for Actiq (Oromucosal fentanyl lozenge, Flynn Pharma 01462 458 974) has been amended to include additional information on measures to prevent a potential overdose and to further clarify the dosage during titration, maintenance therapy and dose readjustment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oramorph SPC updated<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The UK <a title=\"Link to SPC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.medicines.org.uk\/emc\/medicine\/317\/SPC\/Oramorph%20Oral%20Solution\" target=\"_blank\">SPC <\/a>for Oramorph oral solution 10mg\/5mL (morphine sulphate, Boehringer Ingelheim 01344 424600) has been updated to include a specific section for paediatric patients and new information for children 13-18 years old. Specific information has also been added on excipients, including the amount of ethanol (alcohol), i.e. 10vol%.<\/p>\n<p><strong>European Medicines Agency (EMEA) grants a marketing authorization for <\/strong><strong>generic ibandronic acid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The EMEA has granted a marketing authorization for generic ibandronic acid (<a title=\"Link to more information\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ema.europa.eu\/ema\/index.jsp?curl=pages\/medicines\/human\/medicines\/001195\/human_med_001376.jsp&amp;murl=menus\/medicines\/medicines.jsp&amp;mid=WC0b01ac058001d125&amp;jsenabled=true\" target=\"_blank\">Ibandronic acid<\/a>) for the prevention of skeletal events in patients with breast cancer and bone metastases (50mg tablets) and for the treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women at risk of developing fractures (150mg tablets). The EMEA has also granted a marketing authorization for generic ibandronic acid (<a title=\"Link to more information\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ema.europa.eu\/ema\/index.jsp?curl=pages\/medicines\/human\/medicines\/002025\/human_med_001406.jsp&amp;murl=menus\/medicines\/medicines.jsp&amp;mid=WC0b01ac058001d125]\" target=\"_blank\">Iasibon<\/a>) for the prevention of skeletal events in patients with breast cancer and bone metastases (tablets and infusion), and for the treatment of tumour-induced hypercalcaemia with or without metastases (infusion).<br \/>\n<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rosiglitazone no longer available in UK<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Further to the suspension of its licence, the two preparations containing rosiglitazone (Avandia and Avandamet, GSK) have been withdrawn from the UK. For more information, <a title=\"Link to more information\" href=\"http:\/\/hcp.gsk.co.uk\/news\/avandia-and-avandamet-withdrawn-from-the-market-in-the-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Prepared by Sarah Charlesworth and Andrew Wilcock<\/em><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Selected items from the News and Latest Additions sections of www.palliativedrugs.com , the world\u2019s leading palliative care website. Drug Updates Clarifying dexamethasone prescribing The British National Formulary now recommends prescribing of dexamethasone injection as dexamethasone base. This follows recent changes to the labeling of both UK dexamethasone injection products (Organon product, 2003 and Hospira product [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/2011\/07\/01\/news-and-updates-from-www-palliativedrugs-com\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2833],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates-from-www-palliativedrugs-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/spcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}