Content about Pediatrics

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals for treating a rare form of cystic fibrosis, the agency said Tuesday.

The FDA announced the approval of Kalydeco (ivacaftor) for treating patients ages 6 years and older with CF who have a mutation called G551D in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator gene.

MADISON, N.J. — According to two new surveys of parents and pediatricians from Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, more than half of all parents report feeling anxious, fearful or helpless when their child comes down with a fever. In addition, many parents are not managing the fever correctly.

This actually is nothing new to the vast majority of pediatricians (94%) who believe that parents need more fever management education.

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued guidance regarding the use of injector devices to administer flu vaccines to patients.

The FDA said that healthcare professionals should not use such clinical devices to administer flu vaccines, adding that all vaccines, including influenza, "be administered in accordance with their labeling."

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Vertex Pharmaceuticals has filed for Food and Drug Administration approval of a drug for cystic fibrosis, the company said.

Vertex announced the submission to the FDA of an application for approval and priority review of Kalydeco (ivacaftor), which it said was potentially the first medicine to target the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis, namely mutations in the CFTR gene that causes defective or missing CFTR proteins that inhibit the flow of salt and water across cell membranes and lead to mucus buildup.

NEW YORK — People taking oral steroids are twice as likely as the general population to have severe vitamin D deficiency, according to a study of more than 31,000 children and adults by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University released last week.

Their findings, published in the Sept. 28 online edition of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggested that physicians should more diligently monitor vitamin D levels in patients being treated with oral steroids.

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Perrigo this summer developed a healthcare professional outreach strategy, educating pediatricians, for example, around the company’s new infants’ and children’s acetaminophen dosing and packaging changes. It’s the kind of outreach that’s more often associated with an OTC manufacturer supporting a branded product, not the store-brand medicines that Perrigo produces. 


ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — Chickenpox is the scourge of many a schoolchild and usually a convenient, if itchy and feverish, reason to stay home for several days, but it also has been fatal for many who catch it — until recently.

According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, since a vaccine for varicella, the virus that causes chickenpox, became available in 1995, deaths from the virus have been virtually eliminated.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid is selling whooping cough vaccines to parents in California at a reduced price, the retailer said Thursday.

As of July 1, a new state law will require proof of vaccination for all students entering grades 7 through 12, and nearly all of the retail pharmacy chain’s 600 stores in California will be able to vaccinate walk-in patients or by appointment. The reduced-price vaccine will sell for $57.99.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Food and Drug Administration declined to approve a drug made by Eli Lilly for treating a disease of the pancreas that often occurs in patients with cystic fibrosis, Lilly said.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine for shingles in older patients.

The agency said Thursday that it had approved Merck’s Zostavax (zoster vaccine live) vaccine in patients ages 50 to 59 years. The vaccine already is approved for those ages 60 years and older.

Shingles, caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox, affects about 200,000 people in the United States ages 50 to 59 years each year.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — With the state of Colorado experiencing an increase in the number of reported whooping cough cases, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has been encouraging vaccination to help increase immunity and stop the spread of the disease.

In response to this, Walgreens on Thursday announced that it now is offering immunizations that provide protection against pertussis (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis-Tdap vaccine) at all of its more than 150 stores throughout the state, every day, with no appointment necessary.