Metformin (Glucophage - Bristol-Myers Squibb), a hypoglycemic agent, was recently marketed in the USA for oral treatment of patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) not adequately controlled by diet alone. Previously marketed in more than ninety countries, including Canada, metformin (dimethylbiguanide) is chemically related to phenformin (phenylethylbiguanide), which was withdrawn from the US market in 1976 because it caused a high incidence of lactic acidosis. In approving metformin, the US Food and Drug Administration stipulated that a post-marketing controlled...

Zolmitriptan (Zomig - Zeneca), a selective serotonin (5-HT1)-receptor agonist, is now available in the USA for oral treatment of migraine headache. Zomitriptan structurally resembles sumatriptan (Imitrex - Medical Letter 34:91, 1992). Drugs currently used for acute treatment of migraine include injectable, oral and nasal spray formulations of sumaptriptan, injectable dihydroergotamine, dihydroergotamine nasal spray, ergotamine tartrate alone or with caffeine, and various analgesics. Anoterh 5-HT1-receptor agonist, naratriptan (Amerge - Gaxo Wellcome), has been approved by the FDA but has not...

Epirubicin, an analog of doxorubicin that has been available in Europe and Canada for 15 years, has now been approved by the FDA for adjuvant use after resection of the primary tumor in breast cancer patients with axillary node involvement.

Paclitaxel (Taxol - Bristol-Myers Squibb) is now available in the USA for treatment of metastatic ovarian cancer refractory to other drugs. The new drug is a natural product extracted in small amounts from the inner bark of the Western yew tree found mainly in the Pacific northwest (Taxus brevifolia). Efforts to synthesize the drug have been unsuccessful to date, but a semi-synthetic product (taxotere) prepared from the needles of European yews has shown some promise (R Pazdur et al, J Natl Cancer Inst, 89:1781, 1992), and a fungus (Taxomyces andreanae) growing on the Pacific yew was...

Rimantadine hydrochloride (Flumadine - Forest), the alpha-methyl derivative of amantadine (Symmetrel, and others), was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for prevention and treatment of influenza A virus infections in adults and for prevention of influenza in children.

Pramipexole (Mirapex - Pharmacia & Upjohn) and ropinirole (Requip - SmithKline Beecham), two new dopamine agonists, have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of both early (without levodopa) and advanced (with levodopa) Parkinson's disease. Bromocriptine (Parlodel) and pergolide (Permax) are older dopamine agonists marketed in the USA for adjunctive use with levodopa.

Cerivastatin (Baycol - Bayer), a new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (or "statin"), has been approved by the FDA for treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Cerivastatin is the sodium salt of a synthetic fluorophenyl pyridinyl-substituted heptanoic acid.

Dofetilide (Tikosyn - Pfizer), a new methanesulfonamide antiarrhythmic drug, has recently been marketed for oral treatment of atrial fibrillation and flutter.

View the Comparison Table: H2-Receptor Antagonists and PPIs

Nicardipine (Cardene - Syntex), a dihydropyridine calcium-entry blocker structurally related to nifedipine (Procardia; Adalat), was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for oral treatment of angina and hypertension. Advertisements for the drug claim that nicardipine is more vasoselective; than other calcium-channel blockers and does not depress myocardial contractility.