terrasig | May 8, 2007As noted in my Sunday post on the New York Times article on diethylene glycol (DEG) contamination of glycerin used for cough syrup, the US FDA has warned pharmaceutical manufacturers, compounding pharmacies, and repackers to test glycerine stocks for the toxic glycol.
Frequent commenter, Joe, noted that the sad part of the DEG deaths was that testing glycerin purity was a relatively simple chemical analysis. Through their guidance document, FDA has made available a free PDF of a paper from the Journal of AOAC International describing a simple, at-site thin-layer chromatography method for…
terrasig | May 7, 2007My namesake and North American father of pharmacology, John Jacob Abel, was a celebrity in absentia at the recent Experimental Biology meeting of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). In Nature, Jill Adams reported on an effort to mark the 100th anniversary of the society next year by having members determine their "Abel number" - their degrees of removal from having published with the man who discovered epinephrine, first crystallized insulin, and founded departments of pharmacology at both Michigan and Johns Hopkins.
Now, of course, Abel is not the…
terrasig | May 6, 2007I wrote back in December about poisoning deaths in Panama due to a cough syrup substitution with diethylene glycol, a cheap industrial solvent that is toxic to the kidneys and nervous system when ingested. This same solvent was the cause of over a hundred deaths in the US in 1937, leading to passage of the most signficant drug purity laws in US history.
In this morning's New York Times, Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker present a comprehensive analysis of the Panamanian poisoning cases, tracing the diethylene glycol to a Chinese glycerine factory run by a former tailor. The Times reporters…
terrasig | May 4, 2007In a fitting end to what became simple math week here at Terra Sig, an article by Tara Parker-Pope in the Wall Street Journal addresses the issue of supersized alcohol portions. A subscription is required so I'll quote heavily.
Considerable data has accumulated to suggest that there are health benefits from one alcoholic drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men. But Parker-Pope notes that as stemware has grown bigger bowls to fully experience the aromas from swirling wines, we are pouring wine servings that cause us to border on binge drinking.
Binge drinking is defined by the…
terrasig | May 3, 2007The other day I noted news of the Texas compounding pharmacy mistake that led to three deaths when an injectable colchicine preparation was found to be ten times more concentrated than labeled. Several readers commented on the reasons for the mistake, but I may have found another.
The source illustrating my pet peeve is the pharmacy's own drug recall announcement posted this week on the FDA MedWatch site:
Recent deaths have been reported in connection with compounded Injectable Colchicine .5mg/ml, 4ml vials, lot number 20070122@26. As a result, ApothéCure is issuing an immediate drug recall…
terrasig | May 3, 2007For five decades, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) has been an national resource for science education and teacher development in the somewhat unlikely setting of Colorado Springs, Colorado. In addition to a variety of print resources, often developed with NSF support.
Among their greatest personal resources for teachers is the Keys to Science Institutes that provide an intensive, 5-6-day-long on-site experience for science educators together with a year-long web-based community that reinforces the skills and tools gained during the institute workshops. While not inexpensive…
terrasig | May 2, 2007While the blogosphere buzz is the potential anti-obesity therapy put forth by Ron Evans' group to turn on PPAR-delta, I was reminded of shortcomings in our nation's drug distribution system from the FDA Medwatch program. (I've written about this topic before here and here.).
The latest alert regards a mix-up of weight loss drugs:
MedWatch - The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program
FDA informed consumers and healthcare professionals regarding the dangers associated with buying prescription drugs over the internet.
FDA received information showing that 24 apparently…
terrasig | May 1, 2007Today's edition of the NCI Cancer Bulletin features another natural product clinical trial, this time for depsipeptide in T-cell lymphoma.
Depsipeptide (Romidepsin or FR901228) is an early histone deacetylase inhibitor isolated from fermentation of Chromobacterium violaceum. Several histone deacetylase inhibitors are in clinical trials for various cancers and many are derived from natural products. However, the first HDAC inhibitor approved by FDA is a synthetic compound, SAHA or vorinostat (Zolinza), also for T-cell lymphoma.
What is it about T-cell lymphoma that attracts the development…
terrasig | May 1, 2007A few weeks ago, I commented on the increased action by the US FDA against unapproved drugs that have been used for decades but were never subjected to today's formal framework of preclinical and clinical safety and efficacy trials (most recent action here).
Over the last couple of months, FDA has been creating a bit of anxiety amongst herbal medicine stakeholders over their document entitled, "Guidance for Industry: Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration." (PDF here, html here). The term, CAM product, refers to any of the…
terrasig | April 29, 2007This sad story harkens back to my days as a pharmacy prof when students would argue for points on an incorrect pharmaceutical calculations exam by saying, "well, only the decimal point was off."
A pharmacy erroneously made a drug 10 times more potent than intended, which killed three people who received it at an Oregon clinic, the state medical examiner said Friday.
ApotheCure Inc., a drug compounding pharmacy company in Texas, said an employee made a weighing error in the creation of the drug colchicine.
Drug compounding pharmacies have often attracted controversy. While they fulfill the…
terrasig | April 26, 2007By now you have already heard that my ScienceBlogs colleague, Shelley Batts of Retrospectacle, has been threatened with legal action if she did not remove published figures from a blog post. Shelley had a nifty post on a recent paper in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture detailing how treatment with naturally-occuring volatile compounds (including ethanol and methyl jasmonate) increased the production of antioxidant compounds present in blueberries and strawberries. It was an interesting story but the results didn't mean that mixing alcohol with fruit mixers was good for you…
terrasig | April 25, 2007A proprietary extract of black cohosh (Actea racemosa) sold in the US and Europe as Remifemin has long been purported as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy in menopause and perimenopause. Several trials have questioned the efficacy of this herb (one discussed on this blog) and the NIH has been concerned about sporadic reports of liver toxicity associated with some preparations of the herb. In the literature, black cohosh has been described in various instances as a phytoestrogen, an antiestrogen, an estrogen-receptor modulator, or devoid of any estrogenic activity. So, even I am…
terrasig | April 23, 2007More Canadian press leads me to put up another post on dichloroacetate (DCA), the inhibitor of mitochondrial aerobic glycolysis that is being promoted as a freely-available cancer "cure." Like many compounds tested in animal models of human cancer, DCA treatment reduces the size of human lung tumors grown in rats, but is far from a cure. Any other similar drug would be just one of hundreds jockeying for investment by drug companies large and small and might not even be competitive enough for entry into clinical trials. However, DCA is a bulk chemical that is largely available freely and is…
terrasig | April 20, 2007If you've been to Aspen, Colorado, for a scientific conference you have no doubt made the bike ride down valley to the venerable Woody Creek Tavern for margaritas and such. (The ride back to town is a wee bit more challenging, by the way.) The Aspen Times now reports that the Tavern is up for sale:
The Woody Creek Tavern is located along Upper River Road, adjacent to the Woody Creek Trailer Park. It has been a local hangout for about 27 years. It also has provided liquid refreshment, food, gossip and political cover to many diverse and famous personalities, including the late writer Hunter…
terrasig | April 20, 2007In the comment thread of my recent post about Herbalife, the multilevel supplement marketing company, I brought up the company's association with Dr Louis Ignarro who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.
My medblogging colleague, Orac, reminded me of a post he put up last October about his personal experience hearing Dr Ignarro talk at the American Association for Academic Surgery meeting:
You see, what happened is that Dr. Ignarro started delving into what sounded to me like woo about…
terrasig | April 19, 2007Even when I'm not blogging (like this week, for example), I tend to be doing things behind the scenes related to the blog such as responding to reader mail. In looking for sources to respond to a reader about herbal multilevel marketing firms, I came across an interesting site that tracks media stories and legal actions related to two of the best-known companies.
Rick A. Ross runs an expansive site from his institute in Jersey City, NJ, that is well-regarded for tracking "destructive cults, controversial groups, and movements." Ross remains somewhat controversial among anti-cult experts but…
terrasig | April 16, 2007EPA agrees to cut lead in kids' products
The lawsuit also followed the death of 4-year-old Jarnell Brown of Minneapolis, who died last year from acute lead poisoning by swallowing part of a heart-shaped charm bracelet distributed by Reebok International Ltd. The child's death was ruled accidental, but Reebok recalled 300,000 of the silver-colored, Chinese-made bracelets found to be 90 percent lead that the company had given away with its shoes.
In December, the commission began taking steps to ban, rather than recall as it has been doing, children's jewelry containing more than 0.06 percent…
terrasig | April 15, 2007The weekend version of the Wall Street Journal (sorry, sub reqd) included John Gribbins' list of influential science books that also make for good literature. Gribbin trained originally as an astrophysicist and recently finished writing his 100th book.
The list:
1. On the Loadstone And Magnetic Bodies - By William Gilbert - 1600
William Gilbert of Colchester was the first person to set out clearly in print the essence of the scientific method of testing hypotheses by experiment. He also made discoveries in the field of magnetism that were not improved on for two centuries.
2. Micrographia -…
terrasig | April 13, 2007Despite living in a state with a heavy military economy, the closest I've come to knowing the sacrifices of Iraq War service personnel is through my ScienceBlogs colleague, Mike Dunford, of The Questionable Authority. While his wife is delpoyed in Iraq, Mike is in grad school looking after their two kids. The latest slap in the face to my friend was his learning about the three-month extension of his wife's deployment...not through the unit Family Readiness Group...but on CNN streaming in his campus center.
Mike has posted a letter to his congressional representatives thanking them for…
terrasig | April 12, 2007I wish I could claim responsibility for this essay but the mega-props go to Roy M Poses, MD, of the team blog, Health Care Renewal (blog mission statement: "Addressing threats to health care's core values, especially those stemming from concentration and abuse of power.").
Last week, Roy wrote, "Med Schools to Faculty: Show Me The Money," based on an interview with Dr Lee Goldman, the Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, and Executive Vice-President for Health and Biomedical Sciences at Columbia University.
From Goldman's "cold hard facts about academic medicine" are:…