Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problems.This introductory guide is designed to aid the rapid understanding of the key principles of pharmacovigilance. Packed full of examples illustrating drug safety issues it not only covers the processes involved, but the regulatory aspects and ethical and societal considerations of pharmacovigilance.Covering t...

We all feel uncomfortable about the role of profit in healthcare, we all have a vague notion that the global $600bn pharmaceutical industry is somehow evil and untrustworthy, but that sense rarely goes beyond a flaky, undifferentiated new age worldview. Bad Pharma puts real flesh on those bones, revealing the rigged evidence used by drug companies. Bad information means bad treatment decisions, which means patients suffer and die: there is no climactic moment of villainy, but drug...

The purpose of Ligand Efficiency Indices for Drug Discovery: Towards an Atlas-Guided Paradigm is to introduce in a concise and self-contained form the concepts, ideas, applications and examples of efficiency-driven drug discovery to the biomedical community at large. The book emphasizes the use of 'new variables' and more objective numerical methods to drive drug discovery in an encompassing way. These 'new variables' are based on Ligand Efficiency Indices (LEIs) formulated in a way that p...

Gain a complete understanding of the principles of quality improvement and their application to present and future pharmacy practice"This is a nice introduction to the concepts of continuous quality improvement. It is a comfortable read and is written at an elementary level in comparison to other textbooks in the pharmacy curriculum. This may be necessary, since the authors rightly conclude there is a lack of discussion of quality improvement in the pharmacy curric...

In spite of their relatively low prevalence, systemic vasculitides have been the object of intensive basic and clinical investigations over the last few years. As a consequence, important advancements have been achieved: from updated diagnostic and classification criteria and a more rational nomenclature to the recognition of an expanding spectrum of clinical manifestations and potentially devastating complications; from the recognition of the viral etiology of conditions such as HCV-relat...

An essential outline of the main facets of polypharmacology in drug discovery researchExtending drug discovery opportunities beyond the "one drug, one target" philosophy, a polypharmacological approach to the treatment of complex diseases is emerging as a hot topic in both industry and academic research. Polypharmacology in Drug Discovery presents an overview of the various facets of polypharmacology and how it can be applied as an innovative concept for developing medicines for tr...

Much of the biology of oxidative stress and oxidative signalling centres on the generation and handling of hydrogen peroxide. The overall aim for this book would be to provide an insightful and useful forum to assist with the understanding of the relevance of hydrogen peroxide generation and how this is managed in human biology. The target audience would be those who currently have an interest in the generation of ROS, but who do not have expertise in chemistry, as well as those experts in...

The pharmacology of neurotrophic factors is part of the general field called neuroprotection or neurodegeneration, which has emerged during the past two decades. This new broad research area has identified molecular mechanisms that regulate the morphological plasticity of the nervous system and, in con sequence, discovered novel pharmacological approaches to manipulate these processes in disease states. The new, structural neuropharmacology as de scribed in this volume attempts to regulate...

Synthetic Analgesics provides a comprehensive discussion of morphinans and 6,7-benzomorphans. Morphinans belong to a class of compounds possessing the main structural skeleton of morphine. Chemists have attempted to modify the morphine molecule in order to obtain analgesics without side-effects and addictive properties. The book is organized into two parts. Part A discusses the chemistry and pharmacology of morphinans, covering the syntheses of analgesics with morphine-like activity, N-met...

Fosfomycin is an antimicrobial substance which is available since several years. In earlier clinical studies an oral preparation with poor absorption in a low dosage resulted in inadequate therapeutic results. The presently used parenteral administration in a dosage range of up to 250 mg/kg BW however allowed us to appreciate several unique properties of this drug which make it valuable in the treatment of serious bacterial infections. Due to its small molecular weight and complete lack of...

This volume gathers the latest exciting findings on ADP-ribosylation from renowned experts in the field. It includes ten chapters, organized into the following three thematic sections:· Evolution and detection of endogenous ADP-ribosylation· ADP-ribosylation by the ARTC family of ADP-ribosyltransferases (R-S-E ARTs)· ADP-ribosylation by the ARTD family of ADP-ribosyltransferases (H-Y-E ARTs)The book will provide readers a better understanding of ADP-ribosyla...

Regenerative medicine is broadly defined as the repair or replacement of damaged cells, tissues and organs. It is a multidisciplinary effort in which technologies derive from the fields of cell, developmental and molecular biology; chemical and material sciences (i.e. nanotechnology); engineering; surgery; transplantation; immunology; molecular genetics; physiology; and pharmacology. As regenerative medicine technologies continue to evolve and expand across the boundaries of numerous scien...