Medication news from January to April 2001

Pfizer & Bristol-Meyers release drugs for schizophrenia (04/25/01)
AstraZeneca and ePhysician in prescription pact (04/24/01)
Companies make big money on drugs for schizophrenia (04/18/01)
Easier applying for compensation for impairment (09/04/01)
A new edition of Fass (05/04/01)
Incorrect use of medication for psychosis (04/04/01)

Antidepressive drugs hazardous for some mentally ill (03/21/01)
Female sex hormone can reduce symptoms in schizophrenia (03/08/01)
Increased risk for diabetes after atypical antipsychotics (03/01/01)

Injection of antipsychotics new trend? (02/19/01)
War on the antipsychotics market (020601)
Japanese Company starts selling Seroquel (02/05/01)
Zeldox approved in the U.S. (02/05/01)

Zeldox application in Europe withdrawn (01/31/01)
Prescription of antipsychotic drugs to older people (01/29/01)
Zeldox released on the market (09/25/00)
Clozapin may cause serious cardiovascular side effects (07/29/00)

Now also Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers release new drugs against schizophrenia (04/25/01)
After the recent release of new drugs for schizophrenia lately, from pharmaceutical giants like Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson och AstraZeneca, now also the companies Pfizer Inc. and Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co. follow in their footsteps. Pfizer just released the schizophrenia drug Geodon, and according to Bristol-Meyers, an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for release of Abilitat, will be filed in the fourth quarter of the year 2001. This substance has so far only reached the experimental stage, but has in clinical studies so far been shown to cause no problematic side effects.
Article about Bristol-Meyers on Yahoo! - Reuters (04/25/01)
Article about Pfizer on Yahoo! - AP (04/26/01)
Artikel about Pfizer onYahoo! - Reuters (04/18/01)

AstraZeneca and ePhysician in prescription pact (04/24/01)
AstraZeneca and ePhysician now join each other in a plan for electronic precriptions. Over the next three years, around 500 doctors will be provided, on AstraZenecas expense, with hand-held devices connected to ePhysician and which make electronic prescription writing service possible. The initial target will be psychyatrists that prescribe AstraZeneca's new drug for schizophrenia, Seroquel.
Article on Yahoo! - Reuters (04/24/01)
Press release on ePhysician homepage (04/24/01)

Companies make big money on drugs for schizophrenia (04/18/01)
Both Eli Lilly's and Johnson & Johnson's first-quarter reports for 2001 showed when released yesterday an approximate 15 percent increase. This much thanks to their profit from sales of antipsychotics. Eli Lilly's Zyprexa and Johnson & Johnson's Risperdal have both had great success since they were released on the market. During the same period, Schering-Plough's drug sales have decreased 10 percent.
Read more:
Eli Lilly Profits Rise 16 Percent (Yahoo! - Reuters) (04/17/01)
Johnson & Johnson profits rise 14 percent (Yahoo! - Reuters) (04/17/01)
J&J Earns Up, Schering-Plough Earns Fall (Yahoo! - Reuters) (04/17/01)

Easier applying for compensation for impairment caused by medication (09/04/01)
In early April the "Läkemedelsförsäkringsföreningen" (a Swedish organization for Medication insurance) opened a website at the Internet. The website will publish information and advice for patients, relatives, physicians and caregivers who want to report an impairment caused by medication. The medication industry is responsible for the insurance, and all Swedish citizens are automatically insured. Information about the insurance can be found at the new website, together with instructions on how to report an impairment.
Read more at the "Läkemedelsföreningen" website (in Swedish)

A new edition of Fass (05/04/01)
Fass, the register of medication available in Sweden, is published in a new edition every year, and the information is then updated. About one quarter of the contents in alter since last year. Fass is available as a book, which mainly is used as a reference when the physicians prescribe medication. The same information is also available on the Internet. The use of the Internet version is increasingly rising, according to "Läkemedelsinformation AB", the responsible publisher. A special version is available for patients and the general population; Patient Fass. This version contains easy to read information on medication, dosage, side-effects and other related topics.
Read more about the new edition at "Dagens Medicin" (in Swedish)
Read Fass at Internet (in Swedish)
Read more at "Läkemedelsinformation AB" (in Swedish)

Incorrect use of medication for psychosis (04/04/01)
In 1997, he Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (acronym: SBU) stated that anxious older or demented patients only should be treated with neuroleptics (i.e. medication for psychosis) when they suffer from psychosis or delirium. Still, several older patients suffering from dementia and expressing anxiety or aggression are treated with neuroleptics even though they lack psychotic symptoms.

- It is alarming that many old patients still are treated with neuroleptics; a medication that often causes severe side-effects, says Dr Ingvar Karlsson, senior lecturer at the Psychiatric Clinic, Mölndal Hospital. In his opinion, the use of neuroleptics has to be limited, and if this medication is prescribed the effects on the patients need to be followed up.
Read an article in SBU´s news magazine (in Swedish only)
The report "The use of neuroleptics" can be accessed via SBU´s website

Antidepressive drugs hazardous for some mentally ill (03/21/01)
The use of antidepressive drugs has doubled over the past 15 years, primarily because the new selective serotonin uptake inhbitors are considered safer than the older traditional antidepressants with lower specificity. Now results from a study at Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital in Connecticut show that many cases of psychosis are due to the use of antidepressive medications. It has been known for a long time that these may cause psychotic symptoms. But since the new types of antidepressants are considered safer, they are also more often prescribed, which means more patients are at risk. Even though the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are safer, does not mean they are completely inhazardous, especially for patients with other mental illnesses, in addition to the depression they receive treatment for. The article was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Abstract on PubMed
Read article on Yahoo! - Reuters (032001)

Female sex hormone can help reduce the symptoms in schizophrenia (03/08/01)
An Australian psychiatric study shows that treatment with the female sex hormone estrogen can help reduce the symptoms in patients who suffer from schizophrenia.
Read more on Ananova's website (02/28/01)

Increased risk for diabetes after treatment with atypical antipsychotics (03/01/01)
Reports are now emerging that treatment with the atypical antipsychotic drugs clozapin och olanzapine, and possibly also quetiapine, increases the risks for the treated patient to develop diabetes. The new evidence is presented in the February issue of European Neuropsychopharmacology, and comes from an extensive database search on journals from the years between 1966 and 2000. All documented cases during these years, of treatment with typical and atypical antipsychotics, have been correlated with reports on patients, who have shown to have inbalances in the levels of glucose and insulin. It was already known since before that antipsychotics treatment in general can cause disturbances in the serum glucose control, and that the risks for cardiovascular diseses increase. This is however the first time it is statistically proven that it is the atypical drugs in particular that are responsive for these risks.
Abstract on PubMed

Injection of antipsychotics new trend? (02/19/01)
Both Pfixer och Eli Lilly now seek the American authorities' approval for the introduction of injectable forms of their respective big-sellers on the antipsychotics market, Zeldox (ziprasidone) and Zyprexa. The two medications are currently only available as pills for oral administration. The greatest advantage with injectable drugs is that these act more quickly than when they are given to the patients as pills. Psychiatric patients, who experience sudden agitation can hereby be efficiently calmed down through a fast and simple injection of antipsychotics.
Read the past week's articles on the subject at Yahoo! - Reuters:
Stocks on the Move 02/16/01 (02/16/01)
Panel backs Lilly's Injectable Zyprexa (02/15/01)
US panel says Pfizer drug effective for agitation (02/14/01)
Drugs to Calm Agitated Patients Face US Review (02/13/01)

War on the antipsychotics market (020601)
Shares in AstraZeneca Pls fell over 2 percent in the European pharmaceutical market yesterday. The reason for this is suspected to be the U.S. authorities' approval of Pfizer's new antipsychotic agent Zeldox, which hereby threatens the sales of AstraZeneca Pls' equivalent Seroquel. To AstraZeneca's advantage in a long-term perspective is however today's release of Serouquel in Japan, a nation where the number of schizophrenia cases increases with 1-2 percent annually. The approval of Zeldox is also expected to affect two of the other companies with big-selling antipsychotics, Eli Lilly (Zyprexa) and Johnson & Johnson (Risperdal).
Read the news release from Yahoo! - Reuters

Japanese Company starts selling Seroquel (02/05/01)
Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Japan's seventh-largest drug maker, starts selling Seroquel, an antipsychotic agent from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, on February 6. Seroquel, which is already approved in over 70 countries, has a broader efficiency in managing both the positive as well as the negative symptoms in schizophrenia, and is also often used as treatment when attempts with other antipsychotics have failed.
News report from Yahoo! - Reuters (published 02/05/01)

Zeldox approved in the U.S. (02/05/01)
FDA now appoves the antipsychotic drug Zeldox in the U.S., despite warnings from Pfizer Inc.'s about potential heart effects.
Read more

Zeldox application in Europe withdrawn (01/31/01)
Last fall the pharmaceutical company Pfizer sent in an application for introducing Zeldox in sixteen European countries. This application is now withdrawn by the company, a very unusal procedure accoring to the Swedish Medical Products agency.
Read more

Prescription of antipsychotic drugs to older people (01/29/01)
Older people living in "special accommodation" are prescribed antipsychotic drugs six times more often as compared to older living in ordinary accommodation, according to a new report from the National Board of Health and Welfare.
Read more

Zeldox released on the market (09/25/00)
Two years after the registration, the antiposychotic drug ziprasidon is now finally released on the market. Ziprasidon - the commercial name of which is Zeldox - is released by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Read more

Clozapin may cause serious cardiovascular side effects (07/29/00)
Clozapin, or Clozapin Alpharma, is a neurolepticum that is commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia when attampts of using other chemically related types of neuroleptics have failed and forced to stop due to too serious neurological side effects. An Australian study now shows that Clozapin may cause critical side effects like myocardia and cardiomyopathy.
Read more

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