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Drug News Abstracts - September 2022


Evening Dosing of Antihypertensive Not Superior to Morning Dosing

A randomized UK trial in more than 21,000 patients with hypertension has challenged the long-standing belief that evening doses of antihypertensive medications lead to better outcomes. Results of the trial TIME (Treatment In Morning vs. Evening), a large, prospective, randomized trial that tested whether evening doses of antihypertensives improved major CV outcomes compared with morning dosing, were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona.

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CDC Report Details Safety of COVID-19 Booster Doses for Children Ages 5 to 11

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in MMWR detailed the findings of safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses administered to children ages 5 to 11. On May 17, 2022, the FDA authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization for children ages 5 to 11 years, to be given 5 months after receipt of the second primary series dose. Approximately 650,000 booster doses were administered to individuals in this age group in the first 10 weeks of rollout (May 17 to July 31).

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Olokizumab Effectiveness Expands Treatment Options for Rheumatoid Arthritis

A new drug for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been shown to be at least as effective as the current gold standard treatment. Currently, if a patient’s disease progresses on initial therapy with the folic acid antagonist methotrexate, combination therapy with the tumor necrosis inhibitor adalimumab plus methotrexate is administered. Olokizumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets IL-6, which is known to play a role in the inflammatory process and in the progression of joint damage in RA.

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Updated Recommendations for Statin Use for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

Updated recommendations for use of statins as primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults have been published by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in JAMA. These recommendations were based on review of evidence on the benefits and harms of statins for reducing CVD-related morbidity or mortality and all-cause mortality in adults age 40 and older without a previous history of CVD and no signs or symptoms of CVD who were considered at risk.

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