Background:Background: Information is lacking on the relative effectiveness and cost effectiveness - in a real-life primary-care setting - of leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) and long-acting β2 adrenergic receptor agonists (β2 agonists) as add-on therapy for patients whose asthma...

Background:Background: Information is lacking on the relative effectiveness and cost effectiveness - in a primary-care setting - of leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) as an alternative to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) for initial asthma controller therapy. Abstract: Objective:Objective: To...

Varenicline (Chantix, Champix) is an orally administered α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist that is indicated as an aid to smoking cessation. Well designed clinical trials indicate that varenicline is an effective aid to smoking cessation. During the last 4 weeks of...

Rufinamide (Inovelon), a triazole derivative, is an oral antiepileptic drug approved in the EU as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) in patients aged ≥4 years. The efficacy of oral rufinamide as adjunctive therapy in patients with LGS...

While pneumococcal conjugate vaccines have shown to be highly effective against invasive pneumococcal disease, their potential effectiveness against acute otitis media (AOM) might become a major economic driver for implementing these vaccines in national immunization programmes. However, the...

Objectives: To evaluate the cost effectiveness of etoricoxib (90 mg/day) relative to celecoxib (200 or 400 mg/day), and the non-selective NSAIDs naproxen (1000 mg/day) and diclofenac (150 mg/day) in the initial treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) from the UK NHS perspective....

Background: Abacavir sulfate (abacavir) is associated with a hypersensitivity reaction (HSR) that affects 5-8% of patients. While serious complications are rare, failure to identify it, or abacavir re-challenge following HSR, can be fatal. Genetic screening for HLA-B*5701 can identify patients...

Background: Imbalanced levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH), serum calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) death and fracture in dialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT). The calcimimetic agent cinacalcet can attenuate the...

Fondaparinux (Arixtra) is an anticoagulant that selectively inhibits activated factor X, thereby interrupting the blood coagulation cascade. In OASIS-5, a large pivotal trial in patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS), subcutaneous fondaparinux 2.5 mg once...