• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.381-384
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• 2000

It is well recognized that physicochemical properties of drugs are affected by the type of polymorphic crystalline form of drugs. Clarithromycin is known to exist in at least three polymorphic crystalline forms. Since conventional means to obtain the most thermodynamically stable form (Form II) for the antibiotics is known to be associated with a low purity of the stable form, we developed a novel method to improve the purity of the crystalline form by a modification of the preparation process. The new method involved a simple recrystallization of clarithromycin in solvents having 5-12 carbon atoms (e.g., hexane and heptane) or ethers with 4-10 carbon atoms (e.g., isopropyl ether) and, thus, less likely to be associated with the problem in purity of resulting crystal. Differential scanning calorimetry and powder X-ray diffraction were used to compare the crystalline form of the resultant powder with Form IIcrystal prepared by the conventional method. The crystal prepared by the new method was identical to Form IIcrystal of the conventional method as evidenced by the lack of the exothermic peak near 11$0^{\circ}C$ in differential calorimetry scan, indicating that Form IIcrystal could be readily prepared by the new process. Therefore, these data indicated that the improvement in the purity of the Form IIcrystal for clarithromycin as well as a significant cost reduction is likely by the novel method.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2018

Objective: This study examined the Risk Sharing Agreement (RSA) on pharmaceutical pricing system in Korean national health insurance. Through RSA, the insurer was able to maintain the principles in the price listing process while managing the budget effectively and improving patient access to new drugs. Despite these positive effects, there are still issues raised by some stakeholders, such as lack of transparency in the listing process and doubts about its effectiveness. Therefore, we investigated the impacts of RSA on national health insurance financing and patient access to analyze the effects of RSA. Methods: The impact of RSA was investigated by analyzing the health insurance claims data for 2014~2016. The degree of improvement in patient access was determined by the decreased amount of patients' payment. Results: Results showed that the financial impact of RSA was not significant and patients' access to the new drug greatly improved. Conclusion: These results show that RSA is a good system for improving patient access to new drugs without additional expense on insurance.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.418-425
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• 2023

This study examined the importance of screening for changing bodybuilding and fitness category. The screening criteria for bodybuilding, the background and reason for the creation of new bodybuilding and fitness items, the screening criteria for new items, and the use of drugs were described. The current bodybuilding gives high marks to excessive muscles and excessive diet conditions, and new bodybuilding category have been newly established in line with the recent global trend of pursuing natural beauty over abnormally excessive muscles, and the screening criteria also prioritize the balance of ideal and overall muscles to fit your height and weight. In addition, fitness events such as physique and bikini are gaining popularity with the establishment because they focus on not excessive muscles and natural elements of the body that ordinary people can challenge. Since athletes as well as ordinary people are using drugs to increase muscles and suffer side effects, IFBB(International Federation of BodyBuilding) and KBBF(Korea Body Building Federation) should consider and improve the current bodybuilding screening standards that avoid excessive muscles, and it is believed that bodybuilding and fitness events will develop only when strict punishment and continuous anti-doping education are carried out.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2427-2431
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• 2014

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC), characterized by absence of the estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) and lack of overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), have a poor prognosis. To overcome therapy limitations of TNBC, various new approaches are needed. This mini-review focuses on discovery of new targets and drugs which might offer new hope for TNBC patients.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2000

Cancer development and the efficiency of chemotherapy relies on the patients calcium-related pathological status such as hyper- or hypocalcemica. In the present study, we investigated the effect of extracellular cations such as calcium and magnesium on the therapeutic efficacy of antitumor drugs. The analytic parameters used were cellular drug uptake/excretion and the chemosensitivity of the human breast cancer cell lines, MCF7 and MCF7/ADR. Both calcium and magnesium ions decreased the membrane permeability of cancer cells, which was determined bycell size analysis. These divalent ions also lowered the drug uptake and the cytoplasmic levels of rhodamine 123 and adriamycin, suggesting that they might interfere with the diffusion of these drugs by modifying the physical properties of the cytoplasmic membrane. The acute cytotoxicity of adriamycin after a short period of incubation correlated with changes in its cytoplasmic level. Our results indicate that these extracellular cations might play an important role in the therapeutic activities of anticancer drugs in cancer patients. These results also provide insight a new aspect of chemotherapy, because they suggest that the therapeutic dose of anti-cancer drugs should be modified in cancer-bearing patients presenting with abnormal blood calcium levels.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2005

Recently increasing attention has been focused on solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) as a parenteral drug carrier due to its numerous advantages that can come from both polymeric particle and fat emulsions, together with the possibility of controlled release and increasing drug stability. Lipophilic drugs such as paclitaxel, cyclosporin A, and all-trans retinoic acid have been successfully entrapped in SLN but the incorporation of hydrophilic drugs in SLN is very limited because of their very low affinity to the lipid. Therefore, as a new approach to improve the loading of hydrophilic drugs, a w/o/w emulsion technique has been developed. The primary objective of the current study was to improve the loading efficiency of a model hydrophilic drug, glycine (Log P = -3.44) into SLN. The proposed preparation process is as follows: A heated aqueous phase consisting of 0.1 ml of glycine solution in water (100 mg/ml), and poloxamer 188 (5 mg) were then added to a molten oil phase containing precirol (100 mg) and lecithin (5 mg). This mixture was dispersed by sonicator, leading to a w/o emulsion. A double emulsion (w/o/w) was formed after the addition of 2% poloxamer solution to the above dispersed system. After cooling the double emulsion, solid lipid nanosuspensions were successfully formed. The lipid nanoparticles had the mean particle size of 441.25 nm, and the average zeta potential of -20.98 mV. The drug loading efficiency was measured to be 8.54% and the drug loading amount was measured to be 0.92%. The w/o/w emulsion method showed an increased loading efficiency compared to conventional o/w emulsion method.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.246-252
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• 1997

This study was performed to evaluate antiulcer effects of traditional folk medicines such as heat-treated acumen, halloysitum rubrum and os sepiae against stomach ulcer induced by acetic acid in Sprague-Dawley rats. Various pharmacological parameters were utilized to compare the antiulcer effects of aforementioned drugs based on the size of ulcer lesion, pepsin activity, free and total acidity, gastric secretory volume, and 5-HT (hydxoytrytamine) content. All folk medicines and ranitidine as control drus were shown to decrease ulcer lesion size after 5-day treatments, with the order of halloysitum rubrum, os sepiae, heat-treated acumen and ranitidine. All treated drugs except os sepiae inhibited the gastric volume as compared with that in the control group. Ranitidine most significantly inhibited the gastric volume. All the experimented drugs in this study lowered the gastric acidity. Halloysitum rubrum decreased it most remarkably, followed by ranitidine, os sepiae and heat-treated alumen after 5-day treatments. All used drugs alleviated the pepsin activity as compared with the control group, os sepiae being the highest then halloysitum rubrum, heat-treated alumen and ranitidine in turn. Heat-treated alumen and halloysitum rubrum showed mucin production to the great extent, and ranitidine had slight increasing effect thereon. At the end of observation period, all drugs except ranitidine increased 5-HT contents as compared to the normal group. From the above results, we could confirm the folk medicines such as heat-treated alumen, halloysitum rubrum and os sepiae have not only remarkable antiulcer effects but also preventing effects for the stomach ulcer recurrence, which suggest the experimented folk medicines could be developed as new antiulcer agents.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.524-552
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• 1998

Purgation therapy has played an important role as a influential remedy from the begining of the Chinese medicine. Especially purgation therapy is raised as the effective remedy on the acute infectious disease in the book of 'Treatise on Febrile Disease'. But It was inclined to cold-nature and available only in the excess syndrome. Nevertheless it is evident that the book has showed an example of this therapy. During the middle age, purgation therapy is classified into several subtype; hydrogogue therapy, laxation with lubricants, purgation with cold-natured drugs and purgation with warm-natured drugs. Comparing with the ancient times, it must be a progression. It was investigated earnestly by a school leaded by Zhang Congzheng. They were not restricted to several diseases, but applied it to the wide range of diseases. They thought as following. 'One is ill from pathogenic factor so that you should eliminate it from the human body'. Hence, they frequently used three major remedies such as diaphoresis, emesis and purgation. In this process, purgation therapy had showed eye-opening progress. But opposition to it was not little. Li Gao was a representative man on the opposite side. He expressed a critical opinion and placed great importance on the genuine energy, the natural healing force. Under his influence, a large number of doctors evaded purgation and put it under taboo. On account of these trend, purgation therapy had took a backward step and retrograded. Therefore cathartics such as Rhei Radix et Rhizoma, Rharbitidis Semen, cold drugs such as Gypsum Fibrosum, etc. had been excluded for preservation of the genuine energy, and came about an obnoxious custom to value only 'tonity deficiency', or 'warm and tonify'. As it had came into fashion to approach most disease from the point of view, purgation therapy was merely fall into a remedy of constipation. After the eighteenth century purgation therapy encountered the new period of rivival. It was introduced by them who strived for the study of Epidemics to the new current of thought, so called '增水行舟'. It was because 온병 was apt to dissipate one's Yin fluid. Therefore purgation therapy of this period was characterized by establishing nourishment Yin and body fluid with or without use of timely purgation of accumulation of heat. From the time of Zhang Congzheng, it was accomplished by Lee Je-ma to the most epoch-making change. He caused an improvement in the use of purgation therapy by regarding innate constitutional contradiction as importance than representing clinical symptoms. He warned that existing remedies that depend only upon symptoms and signs, not upon individual characteristics including constitutional features didn't bring round to but kill them. And he understood all the pathologic processes in his constitutional theory, investigated specific drugs on four constitution, made indications of each prescriptions clear. For giving to differentiation of constition before differentiation of syndrom, his new slant on the pathologic phenomena overcome the limitations of 변증시치, and revaluate purgation therapy from remedy impaire the genuine energy to that restore it by recover the balance between the internal organ. It is the product of him to fundamentally upset the cause to be in disregard of purgation therapy.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2005

Numerous drugs are chiral because they possess one or more chiral centers. Enantiomers may differ in their pharmacokinetic, pharmacological and toxicological properties. However, the significance of stereochemistry of drugs in their therapeutic uses has received relatively little attention until recently. The US FDA issued a guideline on stereoisomeric drugs in 1992, and the European agency describes tests for new drug substances which are optically active in an ICH(International Conference of Harmonization) guideline. According to the guidance, enantiomers may differ in their pharmacokinetic, pharmacological and toxicological properties. Therefore, in this paper, we examined the recently published Canadian guidance, stereochemical issues in chiral drug development, which will be references to make a guidance on stereochemical issues in chiral drug development in Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10045-10051
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• 2015

Chemotherapy is a major therapeutic approach for malignant neoplasms; however, due to the most common adverse events of nausea and vomiting, scheduled chemotherapeutic programs may be impeded or even interrupted, which severely impairs the efficacy. Aprepitants, 5-HT3 antagonists and dexamethasone are primary drugs used to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). These drugs have excellent efficacy for control of acute vomiting but are relatively ineffective for delayed vomiting. Aprepitant may remedy this deficiency. Substance P was discovered in the 1930s and its association with vomiting was confirmed in the 1950s. This was followed by a period of non-peptide neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor antagonist synthesis and investigation in preclinical studies and clinical trials (phases I, II and III). The FDA granted permission for the clinical chemotherapeutic use of aprepitant in 2003. At present, the combined use of aprepitant, 5-HT3 antagonists and dexamethasone satisfactorily controls vomiting but not nausea. Therefore, new therapeutic approaches and drugs are still needed.