Back from vacation!
Well I'm back after about a week or so of vacationing… I ended up extending my stay for an extra day and very seriously considered moving there.
So I'm back. And I have to say that I enjoyed my last T3 post quite a bit more than I have most of my other entries. There's something to be said for "investigative reporting" I suppose…
Conflicting drug information from "authoritative" sources…
If you do a Google search for "Tylenol #3", the second hit on the page is this link. Looking closely at the page, you'll note that we're talking about "Tylenol #3" specifically. Why then, is the Common Name listed as "acetaminophen - codeine - caffeine"?
There is no caffeine in Tylenol #3. There's just acetaminophen and codeine.
What form(s) does this medication come in?
Tylenol NO. 3 with Codeine®: Each round, hard, white, flat-faced tablet, bevelled-edged, engraved with "3" on one side and "McNEIL" on the other, contains acetaminophen 300 mg and caffeine 15 mg, in combination with codeine phosphate 30 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: cellulose, cornstarch, and magnesium stearate. This medication does not contain gluten, lactose, sodium metabisulfite, or tartrazine.
Who should NOT take this medication?
Anyone allergic to acetaminophen, caffeine, or codeine should not take this medication.
In the United States, when a doctor writes "T3" or "Tylenol #3" you're getting 300mg of acetaminophen and 30mg of codeine. No caffeine.
However if you go to the Janssen-Ortho website and hit up their product information PDF for their Tylenol products, it indicates there's caffeine in T2 and T3, but not T4. But the Ortho-McNeil website's prescribing information (PDF), for T3 indicates that it's 300mg APAP and 30mg of codeine. No caffeine.
So WTF is going on here? I called Ortho-McNeil (US makers of T3) and I also called Janssen-Ortho (Canadian counterpart). The US office told me what their website did: no caffeine. I have yet to hear back from the Canadians — they say they'll return your call in one business day. I'm wondering if there's a difference between Canadian T3s and US T3s? Maybe in Canada, they have 15mg of caffeine, whereas in the US, they don't? If this is indeed the case, talk about a nightmare trying to track down accurate consumer information. Yikes.
Update: I just got off the phone with Janssen-Ortho of Canada, and Tylenol #3 in Canada has caffeine in it, which means that it is different than the US formulation of Tylenol #3. If I had trouble figuring this out, how much moreso would your average consumer struggle?
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, drug information, T3, Tylenol #3[/tags]
12 types of med students
Saw this on digg today in the upcoming section. It probably won't make it to the front page, but it is pretty funny. 
Viagra going OTC on Valentine's Day (UK-only)
April Fool comes 6 weeks early? No, it's for real.
Starting on February 14, Boots pharmacies in the UK will sell sildenafil (Viagra) over the counter, but it won't be cheap. 4 50mg tablets will go for 50 pounds sterling — or about $97USD. Men will have a private consultation with the pharmacist and their blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels with be checked. Assuming everything is fine, they will be able to buy 4 tablets without a prescription.
If they want more, they'll have to see a doctor — presumably for a prescription — to get more.
Beginning this program on Valentine's Day is totally awesome, no?
[tags]Viagra, Valentine's Day[/tags]
Merck's replacement for Vioxx (Arcoxia) doing well in trials
Arcoxia (etoricoxib), Merck's replacement for Vioxx, is doing well in tests comparing its upper GI side effects against diclofenac. Results suggest that it's better, though how much better is unclear. This is pretty good news since diclofenac is (mostly) more patient-friendly than ibuprofen, and ibuprofen is of course wildly popular for treating inflammation.
The billion dollar question remains how Arcoxia affects the heart. One study suggests that it's more friendly than diclofenac, but a better question would be how it fares against placebo. Though if it's "better" than diclofenac — a drug that's been on the market for years — does that mean it's a shoe-in for FDA approval when the time comes regardless of how it fares against placebo?
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, COX-2, NSAIDs[/tags]
Will Lovenox eventually have an approved generic?
Sanofi Aventis had its patent overturned in a California court the other day, but the millionbillion dollar question is whether or not a generic can be approved to compete with the brand. That's thanks to the lack of a generic biologic approval pathway. Basically, the law which allows non-biologic generic drugs uses the process laid out in 505(b)(2) or 505(j) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
An equivalent approval route for biologic drugs hasn't been established yet, but now the question is whether or not enoxaparin can be approved under 505(b)(2) or 505(j). The door isn't completely closed through 505(b)(2), but it's not exactly black and white whether a follow-on product is possible, either. So now that the patent's been overturned, does it even matter?
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, Lovenox, enoxaparin[/tags]
Largest AIDS vaccine trial to start in South Africa
The largest trial of an AIDS vaccine yet has been unveiled, and it will take place in South Africa where HIV infection rates are as high as 1 in 9. The details can be found here, but the main goals are to determine if the vaccine does a few different things:
- Does prevent infection?
- Does it lower the HIV levels in those already infected?
- Does this vaccine work on the C strain of HIV prevalent in South Africa?
The trial will use 3,000 volunteers of both sexes between the ages of 18 and 35. More inclusion and exclusion details can be found in the clinicaltrials.gov link.
[tags]Medicine, AIDS, HIV, vaccine, AIDS vaccine[/tags]