If you are a future (or current) pharmacist, you need to know warfarin. You don't need me to tell you that. Every teacher and preceptor you've had since you started school has been drilling that into your head.
However you've probably also noticed that few will actually tell you how to dose warfarin. Sure, you learn about purple toes and birth defects, but that doesn't tell you what to do when your patient's INR is 5.6.
Read MoreImagine it's your first week of an APPE rotation at an anticoagulation clinic. You're excited and a little nervous. You've been brushing up on your Lovenox. You've read all you can about Eliquis and Xarelto and Pradaxa (oh my!). You're ready to impress.
Then there's the elephant in the room that is warfarin. Sure, you know lots about it. You can rattle off facts about VKORC1, and R and S enantiomers. You know that the pills are color coded by strength.
But how do you actually dose warfarin? If you're like most of us, you probably don't feel adequately prepared to jump right into managing wafarin therapy with what you learned in the classroom.
Read MoreEditors Note: This is a test post. We're doing this to gather feedback from you. Do you like this format for new FDA approval posts? Do you dislike it? Please let us know in the comments!
If feedback is positive, we will post something similar to this when new drugs are approved by the FDA.
Lenvatinib [Lenvima]
Locally recurrent or metastatic, progressive, radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer
Lenvatinib can be used to treat the vast majority of thyroid cancers (differentiated thyroid cancers account for about 94% of all thyroid carcinomas according to NCCN)--after they have failed radiation therapy.
Read MoreMonoclonal antibodies (-mabs) are a common source of confusion for pharmacy students. They have long, hard-to-pronounce names that all look and sound alike. It's impossible to tell them apart, let alone keep track of where they're used therapeutically.
Well that ends today, you smarty pants tl;dr pharmacy reader, you. Today we're going to show you how to make sense of the entangled maze of -mabs. We're going to show you that there is actually a system to how monoclonal antibodies are named.
Why bother? Because you can tell most of what you need to know about a monoclonal antibody just by the name. You can learn a few simple rules that apply everywhere instead of crowding your brain memorizing endless details that you'll eventually forget after the test.
You can perform better on tests while spending less time studying and still remember the information.
Not to mention, -mabs are the future. They aren't going anywhere. You are going to see more and more of them because they're effective (both clinically and at making money for Genzyme shareholders).
Read More
