In a story featured on NPR yesterday, news of additional warning information on labeling for oral emergnecy contraception in Europe has raised questions as to why similar label changes have not yet occured in the USA. The story focuses on a recent meta-analysis [1] that describes the effectiveness of the oral emergency contraceptives levonorgestrel (Plan B) and ulipristal acetate (Ella). In this case, I must agree with the FDA, that there is not enough data [...]

With all the controversy surrounding the questionable association of mortality associated with the use of etomidate for the purposes of induction in the septic patient, it only seems reasonable to recommend alternative agents in this setting...or design therapeutic analogues. Enter carboetomidate. Carboetomidate is a derivative of etomidate that contains a pyrrole ring in its structure, as opposed to an imidazole ring that is found in etomidate. What is the significance of this? It has been [...]

The first drug that I ever had clinical experience with was flumazenil. It was as a student during my final year of pharmacy school, and it occurred while I was on my clinical practice rotations. We had a patient on our ward service who had an MRI and was extremely lethargic following the procedure. We soon discovered that our patient received more lorazepam than he could tolerate prior to the procedure, which seemed to be [...]