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Pfizer, Medivation to discontinue Dimebon development following late-stage trial results
NEW YORK — A late-stage clinical trial to evaluate a drug in Alzheimer's disease patients came up short, the drug's developers said Tuesday, prompting them to cease its development.
Pfizer and Medivation announced results of the phase-3 "CONCERT" trial of Dimebon (latrepirdine), a trial that had lasted 12 months and enrolled 1,003 patients worldwide. The drug, which the companies have studied since 2009, was originally developed by Soviet Union scientists in the 1980s as an antihistamine.
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FDA issues alert about sharing of insulin pens
SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration's latest message to consumers and healthcare professionals seems like a no-brainer: "Insulin pens are not for sharing."
But the agency said it knew of two undisclosed hospitals that it said had reused the cartridge components of insulin pens in administering insulin to more than 2,000 patients, though the hospitals reportedly changed the pens themselves.