Pharmaceutical Tech

Aug102018 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Working With a Genetic Counselor for Prenatal Care

Articles

Genetic counselors are healthcare professionals who work with couples and individuals for a variety of reasons, including: Prenatal care: Helping women and/or couples who are planning a pregnancy, or who are pregnant, learn more about their pregnancy. Pediatric care: Diagnosing a child who shows physical signs of a genetic condition. Adult risk assessment of inherited genetic disease: Helping individuals understand if they are at risk of passing on a gene associated with a certain genetic condition to their children. Cancer risk assessment: Helping individuals understand whether they have inherited a gene that may increase their risk of developing a certain type of cancer. This article will explore the reasons why women and couples may seek help from a genetic counselor ...

Aug12017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Would Virtual Clinical Trials Work?

Clinical Trials

Further into the future, clinical trials to test the efficacy of new drugs would not require the test subject physically traveling to a clinical research facility or hospital. Mobile devices – smart phones, watches or glasses with inbuilt wearable sensors – would be enough to connect one to the clinical research study and report general information and adverse events. These sensors would record data such as body temperature and blood glucose levels, which would be sent to the Electronic Data Capture (EDC) record. The clinician would then visit the subject at home for drug administration and follow-up. One could even postpone or pre-pone the visit using automated reminders in their devices but within a time frame permitted by the study protocol. The future of pharmaceutic...

Jul252017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Issues with Detecting Counterfeit Drugs

Drug Counterfeiting

Counterfeit medicines have been pervading the pharmaceutical industry, with a sharp increase by 51% between the years 2011 and 2015 as per the Pharmaceutical Security Institute in Vienna. The high reimbursement costs of medicines due to the higher R&D risks have attracted a massive chain of drug racketeers that sell spurious medicines at prices too good to believe. Even legitimate pharmaceutical supply chains, including community and online pharmacies, haven’t been spared by adulterine medicines. Counterfeit drugs pose a serious health threat to the public and cause serious financial damages to pharmaceutical companies. Fake medicines are of two kinds – contaminated, contain the wrong or no active ingredient; or could contain the right active ingredient at the wrong dos...

Jul112017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

The Future of Pharmaceuticals

Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Research and Development

The inter linking of medicine and technology is paving way for newer opportunities in pharmaceutical medication, surgery, and health monitoring. Medicine is increasingly being interspersed with fields such as computer science, nanotechnology and biotechnology to give hybrid fields that are slowly taking over traditional pharmaceuticals. Some of these fields are set to redefine the future of pharmaceuticals. Precision Medicine Precision medicine is a field that attempts at discovering the biological basis of disease using clinical and molecular information of a patient, obtained by converting DNA into data through genome sequencing. This data is used for identifying specific gene abnormalities that help understand which types of patients a drug would be most effective on, an...

Jul42017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Dealing With Vaccine Allergies

Cure & Prevention, Pharma Treatment, Vaccinations and Antidotes

According to a research conducted by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), allergic reactions to vaccines are extremely rare among people. The most dangerous form of reaction to vaccine components is anaphylaxis shock. However, the redeeming quality of a vaccine-triggered allergy is that it is temporary, which means most patients outgrow it within a matter of two to five But these allergies and the myths surrounding them are often used to avoiding immunization altogether, which can have severe consequences for the patient and their progeny. As per experts in the field, the most common symptom of an allergic reaction to vaccines is fever, which shouldn’t contraindicate future doses. However, any other serious symptom must be reported to concerned au...

Jun222017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Gene Therapy For Disease-Free Society

Biotechnology, Cure & Prevention, Medicine

As per several genome research organizations, a sizeable percentage of diseases acquired by newborns are genetic, which means the diseases were acquired through hereditary or mutations. In simpler terms, when the egg and the sperm (genetic material) fuse, the embryo formed will acquire some hereditary traits that may carry diseases. A random mutation, although rare, may cause an extremely rare genetic condition. Rather than making futile attempts at discovering newer drugs for genetic disorders, in May 1989, scientists made the first successful attempt at modifying human DNA by injecting favourable genes into the nucleus of the cell. This method, called gene therapy, ever since has been advancing by leaps and bounds. Coupled with the latest genetic editing tool called CRISPR/C...

Jun162017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Edwards’ Sapien 3 Artificial Heart Valve For High Risk Patients

Articles

Repeated failure of the bio-prosthetic aortic valve or Mitral valve, which raises the chances of fatality or severe complications in patients of symptomatic heart disease, has lead to a new breakthrough in artificial valve technology. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the use of Edward Lifescience LLC’s Sapien 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve, which will replace the Aortic or Mitral valve in case of failure. The use of the new valve has also been expanded to high-risk patients by the FDA, giving a new lease on life for patients of symptomatic heart disease. As per experts in cardiovascular devices at the FDA, this is the first time any regulatory agency was approving a transcatheter heart valve as a valve-in-valve treatment to replace the bio-prosthetic mitra...

May192017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Top Professions in the Medical Field

Articles

When we think of the medical field we always think of doctors and nurses. There are a lot more opportunities within the medical field that one can work for and be very successful at. One of the best things about the healthcare profession is that there is always a need somewhere. So let’s review the top medical professions for you to consider, whether you are looking for a career goal or changing careers. Pharmacist With thousands of drugs filled by consumers each day, pharmacists are needed to manage those prescriptions. Pharmacists spend their days interpreting physician orders, preparing prescription medicines, detecting incompatibilities between medicines, packaging and labelling medicines, and monitoring drug therapies. Many pharmacists take the time to get to know the patients com...

Mar152017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

Genomic Personalized Medicine

Clinical Trials, Cure & Prevention

Diagnostics and prognoses are done based on set standards in Medicine. These standards include symptoms. Any two persons sharing similar symptoms can carry the same kinds of diseases or afflicted with the same disorders. But a question always looms when diagnostics (or prognoses) fail – the two persons share similar symptoms and have been given the same medicines and dosage; what could have gone wrong? Quite logically, the physician runs another trial based on their expertise, or simply recommends another doctor. But the revolutionary research going on in the field of the human genome and the recent startling finding that a person’s biological future (future diseases, life span, etc.) can be mapped using the human DNA. This is being referred as “personalized medicine” or genom...

Mar132017 by Pharmaceutical TechNo Comments

How is Calibration Carried Out in Pharmaceutical Applications?

FDA Approved Devices, Laboratory Instrumentation, Pharma Industry, Pharmaceutical Research and Development

It goes without saying that calibration is extremely important in the manufacturing process to produce high-quality products. The importance of calibration in the pharmaceutical industry is equally high as low-quality products put the lives of consumers at risk. Instrument calibration and accuracy is very critical to product safety and quality. At the same time, one has to ensure compliance. Strict calibration practices will not only guarantee a safe product but also help in minimizing costs that are associated with damaged batches and associated fines. Importance of Instrument Calibration in Pharmaceutical Applications Instrumentation calibration and equipment validation are responsible for determining the accuracy and performance of the instruments and sensors used in pharmaceutical ap...