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Biomedical subjects

N Ford

Publications and source records attributed to N Ford.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Pricing of drugs and donations: options for sustainable equity pricing.

Effective medicines exist to treat or alleviate many diseases which predominate in the developing world and cause high mortality and morbidity rates. Price should not be an obstacle preventing access to these medicines. Increasingly, drug donations have been established by drug companies, but these are often limited in time, place or use. Measures exist which are more sustainable and will have a greater positive impact on people's health. Principally, these are encouraging generic competition; adopting into national legislation and implementing TRIPS safeguards to gain access to cheaper sources of drugs; differential pricing; creating high volume or high demand through global and regional procurement; and supporting the production of quality generic drugs by developing countries through voluntary licenses if needed, and facilitating technology transfer.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2001

Loratadine and terfenadine interaction with nefazodone: Both antihistamines are associated with QTc prolongation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Nefazodone inhibits CYP3A; therefore coadministration with CYP3A substrates such as terfenadine or loratadine may result in increased exposure to these drugs. A potential pharmacodynamic consequence is electrocardiographic QTc prolongation, which has been associated with torsade de pointes cardiac arrhythmia. Therefore a clinical pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic evaluation of this potential interaction was conducted. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel group, multiple-dose design was used. Healthy men and women who were given doses of 60 mg of terfenadine every 12 hours, 20 mg of loratadine once daily, and 300 mg of nefazodone every 12 hours were studied. Descriptive pharmacokinetics (time to maximum concentration, maximum concentration, and area under the plasma concentration-time curve) were used for the examination of interactions among the respective parent drugs and metabolites. QTc prolongation (mean value over the dosing interval) was the pharmacodynamic parameter measured. Kinetic and dynamic analysis was used for the examination of pooled concentration and QTc data with the use of a linear model. RESULTS: Concomitant nefazodone treatment markedly increased the dose interval area under the plasma concentration-time curve of both terfenadine (mean value, 17.3 +/- 8.5 ng. mL/h versus 97.4 +/- 48.9 ng. mL/h; P <.001) and carboxyterfenadine (mean value, 1.69 +/- 0.48 microg. h/mL versus 2.88 +/- 0.53 microg. h/mL; P <.001) and moderately increased the dose interval area under the plasma concentration-time curve of both loratadine (mean value, 31.5 +/- 27.9 ng. h/mL versus 43.7 +/- 25.9 ng. h/mL; P <.014) and descarboethoxyloratadine (mean value, 73.4 +/- 54.9 ng. h/mL versus 81.9 +/- 26.2 ng. h/mL; P <.002). The mean QTc was unchanged with terfenadine alone; however, it was markedly prolonged with concomitant nefazodone and terfenadine (mean [90% confidence interval] prolongation 42.4 ms [34.2, 50.6 ms]; P <.05). Similarly, the mean QTc was unchanged with loratadine alone; however, it was prolonged with concomitant nefazodone and loratadine (21.6 ms [13.7, 29.4 ms]; P <.05). Nefazodone alone did not change mean QTc. QTc was positively correlated with terfenadine plasma concentration (r (2) = 0.21; P =.0001). Similarly, QTc was positively correlated with loratadine plasma concentration (r (2) = 0.056; P =.0008) but with a flatter slope. There was no relationship between QTc and nefazodone plasma concentration during treatment with nefazodone alone (r (2) = 0.002, not significant). CONCLUSIONS: In healthy men and women, concomitant nefazodone treatment at a therapeutic dose increases exposure to both terfenadine and carboxyterfenadine. This increased exposure is associated with marked QTc prolongation, which is correlated with terfenadine plasma concentration. A similar interaction occurs with loratadine, although it is of lesser magnitude. Concomitant administration of nefazodone with terfenadine may have predisposed individuals to the arrhythmia associated with QTc prolongation, torsade de pointes, when terfenadine was available for clinical use. However, a new finding is that in the context of higher than clinically recommended daily doses (20 mg) of loratadine concomitant administration with a metabolic inhibitor such as nefazodone can also result in QTc prolongation.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

TRIPs revisited.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Commerce↗
PubMed2000

Motor control by vision and the evolution of cerebral lateralization.

Chicks (4 or 5 days old), which are able to use either eye freely, use the right eye (RE) preferentially in approach to a food dish when a lid, which has to be removed, is visible during approach. They use the left eye (LE) instead when no manipulation is required, but the same dish is similarly visible. The RE is also used preferentially in selecting food grains scattered over the floor; RE use in these two contexts is thus associated with visual control which brings the bill in planned contact with a visible target rather than with approach to a site where it is anticipated that feeding will occur. Zebrafish also use the RE preferentially when preparing to bite a target; during purely visual examination of the same target, this preference disappears. This evidence is used together with evolutionary evidence to support a new hypothesis for the origin of cerebral lateralization: paired anterior eyes evolved in filter-feeding ancestors of the vertebrates as part of the acquisition of prey catching. A key use for early vision was to predict likely contact with prey so as to inhibit reflexes of rejection and avoidance normally elicitated by tactile input to the mouth and so to allow ingestion. Innervation of mouth structures by the left side of the CNS caused control of mouth reflexes to become predominantly a left CNS affair. As visual abilities developed this starting condition meant that control of manipulation (which is by the mouth for most vertebrates) remained predominantly with the left side of the CNS.

Animals↗