Rise in Non-Communicable Diseases Commands Pharmaceutical Scientists’ Attention

Latest Pharmaceutical Breakthroughs Unveiled at Annual Meeting of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS)

ARLINGTON, Va. – October 23, 2000 – During the turn of the 20th century, most people died from communicable diseases. According to the World Health Organization, in 2000, non-communicable diseases cause approximately 60 percent of the world’s deaths. More than 7,000 attendees at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting will discuss the world’s unmet medical needs and share new technologies, clinical research and the latest drug therapies that are expected to impact this century’s greatest health needs.

The AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition: “Unmet Medical Needs: Therapies for a New Millennium” will be held Oct. 29 – Nov. 2 in Indianapolis. In addition to roundtable discussions, more than 1,800 scientific research studies will be presented. Here is a sampling:

Warning to Consumers Taking St. John’s Wort – It is estimated that one out of five people using prescription anti-depressant medications also take the popular dietary supplement St. John’s Wort in hopes of additional mood elevation (JAMA, 1998: 280, pgs. 1569-1575). A new study released at the AAPS Annual Meeting shows that the effect of many prescription medications may be dramatically reduced when combined with St. John's Wort. In fact, this study shows a staggering 50 percent of all prescription and over-the-counter medications, when combined with St. John’s Wort, become ineffective. Most at risk are those taking birth control pills, heart medications, antibiotics, sedatives, protease inhibitors (used by AIDS patients) and others.

AIDS Medications Evolving From 15 Pills to Two a Day – AIDS sufferers currently can take 15 pills or more a day to control the virus. A new drug being  evaluated by the FDA incorporates the complex cocktail into two pills.

According to the study being presented at the AAPS Annual Meeting, this new drug, Trivizir, is bioequivalant to the current 15-pill regimen and has fewer side effects. The study also examines how changing a patient’s medication regimen from three times a day to twice a day, increases compliance frequency from 52 to 70 percent (Clinical Therapeutics,1984: Vol. 6, pg. 590).  

New Ally in Annual Flu Prevention – More than 20,000 deaths associated with the flu virus occurred in the U.S. last year. The 2000 AAPS Annual Meeting will be the forum for the first introduction of an inhalable flu vaccine that’s been tested and shown to be more effective than its injectable counterpart. By inhaling the flu vaccine, clinical tests show that antibodies linger in the mucus membranes of the nose and lungs binding the flu virus on contact. Researchers estimate that this new delivery system for the flu vaccine will be available in one year.

About AAPS PharmSci^SM

All abstracts presented at the AAPS Annual Meeting are published in a supplement to AAPS PharmSci, the organization’s peer-reviewed, online journal. AAPS PharmSci offers a forum for the rapid exchange and dissemination of scientific knowledge in the pharmaceutical sciences.

About AAPS

AAPS is a professional, scientific society of more than 11,000 members employed in academia, industry, government and other research institutes worldwide. Founded in 1986, AAPS aims to advance science through the open exchange of scientific knowledge, serve as an information resource and contribute to human health through pharmaceutical research and development.  For more information about AAPS, click here.

# # #

Editor’s Note: For more information on the above research or to set up interviews with researchers, contact Marie Bertot at 305-573-9955, ext. 210 (bertot@nixongroup.com). All abstracts presented at the Annual Meeting can be previewed in a fully searchable database at https://view.abstractonline.com/aaps/abstractViewer.asp. For complete up-to-date meeting information, visit the AAPS Annual Meeting News Room.  To register for the meeting, contact Debbie Werfel at AAPS, 703-248-4743 or werfel@aaps.org. For the period of October 29 – November 1, contact Marie Bertot or Debbie Werfel at the press room in Indianapolis at 317-262-2820.