The Vivelle transdermal estrogen by patch Novogyne Pharmaceuticals has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. The patch delivers estradiol twice each day. Novogyne plans to release a 0.025 mg per day dose patch late this year. Malarone is the first new treatment for malaria discovered and developed by a pharmaceutical company in more than 40 years. Malarone tablets for adults contain 250 mg of atovaquone and 100 mg of proguanil.
Pediatric tablets contain one-fourth of the amount of drugs used in the adult tablets.
An FDA advisory panel voted that Zeldox by Pfizer for the treatment of schizophrenia was safe enough to be sold on the U.S. market. The agency rejected the drug two years ago because of concerns about a possible increased risk of rare but potentially fatal hearth rhythm disturbances. The FDA has granted tentative approval to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for generic loratadine 10 mg tablets for the treatment of symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis. U.S. heath officials are toughening warnings on Glaxo Wellcome's irritable bowel syndrome drug Lotronex.