Pharma Blog Online

Carmen Gonzalez plucks one of the 50 frogs from the aquarium at her bus stop restaurant, bangs it against tiles to kill it and then makes two incisions along its belly and peels off the skin as if husking corn.
She’s preparing frog juice, a beverage revered by some Andean cultures for having the power to cure asthma, bronchitis, sluggishness and a low sex drive. A drink of so-called “Peruvian Viagra” sells for about 90 cents.
Gonzalez adds three ladles of hot, white bean broth, two generous spoonfuls of honey, raw aloe vera plant and several tablespoons of maca — an Andean root also believed to boost stamina and sex drive — into a household blender.
Then she drops the frog in.
Once strained, the result is a starchy, milkshake-like liquid that stings the throat.
At least 50 customers a day ask for steaming beer mugs of frog juice at Gonzalez’s countertop-only restaurant in eastern Lima. Many treat the concoction as their morning — and afternoon — cup of coffee.
Rebeca Borja, a 53-year-old housewife and mother of five, originally from Lima’s central highland city of Huancayo, where the beverage is common, said simply: “It gives you power.”

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Levitra is sold in the United States by GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Schering-Plough Corp. and overseas by Bayer AG.
Viagra was approved by the government in 1998. It may aid in the treatment of enlarged hearts that can result from high blood pressure, tests on animals indicate.
Levitra was approved in August 2003, and Cialis in November of that year.
There have been no reports connecting Levitra to blindness, said Michael Fleming, a spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline PLC. “We are confident about the safety of our product,” said Fleming.
Viagra, approved to treat erectile dysfunction, should not be used by men with heart conditions whose doctors have warned them not to have sex. Also, patients taking drugs that contain nitrates have been warned not to take Viagra because of sudden, unsafe drops in blood pressure.
The drug’s label also warns of erections lasting longer than four hours, painful erections lasting longer than six hours, headache, flushed skin and vision problems.
Pfizer Inc. said in its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that sales of the drug rose 5 percent — to $438 million in the first quarter of the year. Pfizer also said at the time that Viagra had a 68 percent worldwide market share.
Viagra sales have been under pressure from new competitors Cialis and Levitra, with revenue sinking 11 percent last year to $1.68 billion from $1.88 billion.
Doctors and patients have become increasingly wary of the downsides of prescription drugs after Merck & Co. yanked its pain reliever Vioxx from the market last year because of its potentially lethal side effects.
Merck potentially faces thousands of lawsuits over Vioxx and analysts have estimated its liability may reach $18 billion.
Pfizer was asked to remove its pain reliever Bextra from the market because of its side effects and sales of its other arthritis drug Celebrex are falling. Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra all fall into a category of drugs known as Cox-2 inhibitors.
Industry critics have been demanding that drug companies conduct more post-marketing studies in order to do a better job of discovering side effects once drugs hit the market.
For more than two decades, Americans have mostly pressed for quicker approval of what they hope can be lifesaving drugs for such diseases as AIDS and cancer. But many now are wondering if medicines — a $200 billion industry annually — are coming out too fast and doing too much harm.
Viagra also is at the center of controversy over Medicaid’s payment for prescriptions of the drug to convicted sex offenders in New York and other states.

Tadalafil is a medicine that should be accepted orally. This drug is applied for the treatment of impotence (the inability to attain or maintain a penile erection). It belongs to in a class of drugs called phosphodiesterase inhibitors. This class also includes sildenafil (Viagra) and vardenafil (Levitra). Erection of the penis is caused by the filling of the penis with blood. Filling occurs because the blood vessels bringing blood to the penis extand in size, that’s why the penis is filled by a plenty of blood. At the same time, the blood vessels that carry blood away from the penis reduce in size and remove less blood from the penis. Sexual stimulation that leads to an erection causes the production and emission of nitric oxide in the penis. The nitric oxide causes an enzyme called guanylate cyclase which is necessary for production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). This chemical compound is responsible for extanding and redusing the size of the blood vessels carrying blood to and from the penis. These transformations lead to erection. Then the cGMP is destroyed by another enzyme called phosphodiesterase-5, the blood vessels return to their normal size, blood leaves the penis, and the erection ends. Tadalafil averts cGMP from destroying by phosphodiesterase-5 so that cGMP stays around longer. The longer existence of cGMP causes more prolonged filling of the penis with blood. Tadalafil was approved by the FDA in November, 2003.

It has been established that 140 million men worldwide suffered from impotence affects and half from them are thought to have some physical (medical) cause which include diabetes and circulatory, neurological or urological conditions. Oters are believed to have psychogenic causes of impotence. The engorgement of the penis with blood leads to penile erection. This engorgement appears in case of delivering blood to the penis by the blood vessels which results to extending in size and increasement the delivery of blood to the penis. Under normal conditions, sexual stimulation provoke the production and release of nitric oxide in the penis. Nitric oxide then activates the enzyme, guanylate cyclase, which causes the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). This enzyme is necessary for the erection by affecting the quantity of blood that the blood vessels deliver and remove from the penis. Sildenafil also decreases the pressure in the pulmonary artery in a serious condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension. By blocking an enzyme called phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) which destroys the cGMP sildenafil averts the destruction of cGMP and allows cGMP to accumulate and persist longer. This situation leads to more prolonged engorgement of the penis.

KAMAGRA Jelly is not for newborns, children, or women. Do not let anyone else take your KAMAGRA Jelly. KAMAGRA Jelly must be used only under a healthcare provider’s supervision. Before you start any treatment with KAMAGRA Jelly, be sure to ask your healthcare provider if your heart is healthy enough. If you’re a man who uses nitrate drugs, like nitroglycerine, never take KAMAGRA Jelly. The combination of KAMAGRA Jelly and nitrates can make your blood pressure suddenly drop to unsafe levels. You could get dizzy, faint, or even have a heart attack or stroke. Nitrates are found in many prescription medications that are used to treat angina (chest pain due to heart disease) such as: Nitroglycerin (sprays, ointments, skin patches or pastes, and tablets that are swallowed or dissolved in the mouth) Isosorbide mononitrate and isosorbide dinitrate (tablets that are swallowed, chewed, or dissolved in the mouth) Nitrates are also found in recreational drugs such as amyl nitrate or nitrite (”poppers”). If you are not sure if any of your medications contain nitrates, or if you do not understand what nitrates are, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

Findings involve small number of women who take Reclast, Fosamax
Two research reports suggest a possible link between two bone-building drugs and irregular heart rhythms in a small number of women who take the medicine.
The signs of a problem were more pronounced with Reclast, a drug made by Novartis AG and given through a once-a-year, 15-minute intravenous infusion. But there was a hint of similar trouble in a few women who took the leading osteoporosis pill, Fosamax by Merck & Co. The two drugs are in the same class.
The safety question caught researchers by surprise. While uncertain how big a worry it might be, they agreed the overall risk is small. Specialists said women at high risk for bone breaks — the main target of these osteoporosis drugs — should keep taking them as prescribed.
But several experts said they’d be cautious about those who also are at risk for a condition called atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm that can cause strokes.
The two separate reports published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine point to elevated rates of serious episodes of that heart condition in women who took Reclast and Fosamax.
“For the first time, there may be a side effect,” said a researcher involved in both studies, Dr. Steven Cummings of California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute. Until now, people have assumed Fosamax “was completely safe and could be given to almost anybody.”
Fosamax, the Merck brand name for alendronate, is now used by an estimated 1.8 million American women. In a letter to the medical journal, Cummings reported evidence of the heart problem found in a recent review of a 1997 Merck-sponsored study of postmenopausal women on Fosamax.
There appeared to be 50 percent more risk of the serious heart rhythm in women who took the daily pill than among those who didn’t take it. About half of the 6,459 women took Fosamax, and 47 developed atrial fibrillation, compared to just 31 cases among the other women.
However, the finding, while not statistically definitive for Fosamax, worried some researchers because it is in line with the results of a new study published in the same issue of the medical journal.
This study of 7,736 postmenopausal women with bone-thinning osteoporosis focuses on Reclast. Novartis recently won approval to sell Reclast, known generically as zoledronic acid, for Paget’s disease, another bone condition. The company hopes to get an OK later this year to sell it for osteoporosis use.
The new study, funded by Novartis, shows that Reclast works at least as well as existing drugs in the same class, researchers say. However, the risk of a serious case of irregular heart rhythm was more than double that in the other patients — 50 cases in the drug-taking half, compared to 20 cases in the others.
Researchers cautioned about overestimating the importance of the heart rhythm problem. The Reclast study showed little apparent difference in overall cardiac deaths and the overall risk of the rhythm condition remained small.
Doctors made available by Merck and Novartis said the side effect could be a statistical fluke or just a product of aging. They said earlier studies showed no sign of the possible side effect.
For now, it’s unknown if the possible risk applies to other drugs in the class known as biphosphonates. Future studies are expected to help clarify the risk.

Alendronate is accepted for the treatment of osteoporosis (thinning of bone) in women after menopause. After menopause, it is observed an increased rate of bone loss (resorption). In these patients, alendronate extends bone density by strengthening bone, and reduses the rate of bone fractures. Alendronate can also help during the treatment of Paget’s disease of the bone. This disease consists from a disorderly and accelerated bone’s remodelation which leads to bone weakness and pain. DOSING: For the best absorption alendronate should be taken at least 30 minutes before food, beverage, vitamins or medicines. Alendronate should be accepted with a full glass of plain water first thing in the morning. It is necessary for prevention of chemical irritation of the esophagus (the tube that connects the mouth with the stomach). You shouldn’t chew or suck the tablet. In case of having abnormalities of the esophagus which delay esophageal emptying, such as scarring (stricture) or poor motility (achalasia) patients shouldn’t accept this drug. Patients shouldn’t lie down for 30 minutes after swallowing the tablets if it is impossible this drug should be avoided

Metoprolol is a beta-adrenergic blocking drug which operates on the sympathetic nervous system, a portion of the involuntary nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system increases frequency of heart beat. Metoprolol is necessary for the treatment of abnormally rapid heart rhythms because it decreases the heart rate by inhibiting the action of these nerves. As metoprolol also decreases the force of heart muscle contraction and lowers blood pressure it diminishes heart muscle oxygen demand. Since angina appears when oxygen demand of the heart exceeds supply, metoprolol can help in treatment angina.

The questions come at a time when federal regulators and the drug industry are facing criticism about what they do to ensure the safety of drugs already on the market. Pressure on the FDA to investigate reports of side effects has increased since Merck & Co. yanked its pain reliever Vioxx from the market last year because of potentially deadly heart trouble.
Big money is at stake. Pfizer Inc. said in its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that sales of Viagra rose 5 percent — to $438 million — in the first quarter of the year.

Generic drugs make up roughly half of all prescriptions written in the United States, but only about 10 percent of the dollar value. Generics typically become available when patents expire on expensive brand-name medicines.
Drug manufacturers have a variety of discounts for low-income patients who take their brand-name medicines. But Express Scripts said its program is the first of its kind for generics.
The company recently announced that its earnings for the third quarter were lower than anticipated, saying the decline was related to shareholder and fraud lawsuits.