Adverse drug reaction, side effects and toxicity

EMA to investigate possible link between remdesivir and acute kidney injury

The European Medicines Agency’s safety committee is to review reports of acute kidney injury in some patients being given remdesivir for COVID-19.…

Vitamin D may protect against colitis adverse events in patients taking immune checkpoint inhibitors

People with melanoma who take immune checkpoint inhibitors are less likely to develop colitis if they are taking vitamin D supplements at treatment initiation, a study published in the journal Cancer has suggested…

Withdrawal and preventive therapy best management for medication overuse headache

Medication overuse headache is best treated with a combination of analgesic withdrawal and pharmaceutical prophylaxis, the authors of a study in JAMA Neurology have said.…

Why we need to talk about sex and clinical trials

The under-representation of women in clinical trials is slowly being addressed, but we cannot move towards truly personalised healthcare unless we have an equal balance of the sexes in all new medicine trials.…

Corticosteroids should be used with caution in patients with COVID-19, researchers say

The use of corticosteroids in coronavirus infections is associated with increased risk of death and side effects, such as bacterial infections and hypokalaemia, researchers have said.…

Spotting the signs of acute kidney injury

With 65% of cases beginning in the community, pharmacists can help detect acute kidney injury early and review patients’ medicines before their condition worsens. …

‘Reporting illicit drug reactions’ pilot to close following lack of use

A pilot of a national system for reporting unexpected or severe illicit drug reactions has been stopped because of a lack of use by healthcare professionals.…

Before the dawn: the tough regulatory climate holding back insomnia relief

A new class of sleep medicines, could provide relief for people living with insomnia, but pharmaceutical companies are struggling to bring them to the market.…

Medication dosing could be ‘poisoning’ older people because of age exclusion in clinical trials

Older patients are often being ‘poisoned’ because licensed doses of drugs are only tested in younger, healthy populations, witnesses have told a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry.…

Fluoroquinolone use linked to heart problems, research suggests

Patients exposed to fluoroquinolone antibiotics are more than twice as likely to develop aortic or mitral regurgitation, compared with patients taking amoxicillin, according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.…