Genome-wide association studies in Japanese populations recently identified common variants in the KCNQ1 gene to be associated with type 2 diabetes. We examined the association of these variants within KCNQ1 with type 2 diabetes in a Dutch population, investigated their effects on insulin secretion and metabolic traits and on the risk of developing complications in type 2 diabetes patients.

There is no consensus on the preferred method for defining the non-inferiority margin in non-inferiority trials, and previous studies showed that the rationale for its choice is often not reported. This study investigated how the non-inferiority margin is defined in the published literature, and whether its reporting has changed over time.

Many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are moving towards enforcing prescription-only access to antibiotics. This systematic literature review aims to assess the interventions used to enforce existing legislation prohibiting over-the-counter (OTC) sales of antibiotics in LMICs, their impact and examine the methods chosen for impact measurement including their strengths and weaknesses.

High prices of pharmaceutical products are an increasing challenge in high- and low-income countries. Governments in many countries have implemented pricing policies to ensure affordability of medicines to patients and healthcare systems. The World Health Organization published in 2015 the Guideline on Country Pharmaceutical Pricing Policies, which was based on a series of evidence reviews in the preceding years.As part of the ongoing update of this guideline, we present a protocol for 10 systematic literature reviews on pharmaceutical pricing policies to be covered by the updated guideline.

This study aims to determine whether genetic variants that influence CYP3A4 expression are associated with platelet reactivity in clopidogrel-treated patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and to evaluate the influence of statin/fibrate co-medication on these associations. A study cohort was used containing 1124 consecutive elective PCI patients in whom CYP3A4*22 and PPAR-α (G209A and A208G) SNPs were genotyped and the VerifyNow P2Y12 platelet reactivity test was performed. Minor allele frequencies were 0.4% for CYP3A4*22/*22, 6.8% for PPAR-α G209A AA, and 7.0% for PPAR-α A208G GG. CYP3A4*22 was not associated with platelet reactivity. The PPAR-α genetic variants were significantly associated with platelet reactivity (G209A AA: -24.6 PRU [-44.7, -4.6], p = 0.016; A208G GG: -24.6 PRU [-44.3, -4.8], p = 0.015). Validation of these PPAR-α results in two external cohorts, containing 716 and 882 patients, respectively, showed the same direction of effect, although not statistically significant. Subsequently, meta-analysis of all three cohorts showed statistical significance of both variants in statin/fibrate users (p = 0.04 for PPAR-a G209A and p = 0.03 for A208G), with no difference in statin/fibrate non-users. In conclusion, PPAR-α G209A and A208G were associated with lower platelet reactivity in patients undergoing elective PCI who were treated with clopidogrel and statin/fibrate co-medication. Further research is necessary to confirm these findings.

To evaluate the association between regulatory drug safety advisories and changes in drug utilisation.

Decentralised clinical trial activities-such as participant recruitment via social media, data collection through wearables and direct-to-participant investigational medicinal product (IMP) supply-have the potential to change the way clinical trials (CTs) are conducted and with that to reduce the participation burden and improve generalisability. In this study, we investigated the decentralised and on-site conduct of trial activities as reported in CT protocols with a trial start date in 2019 or 2020.

Non-inferiority (NI) trials in drug research are used to demonstrate that a new treatment is not less effective than an active comparator. Since phase IV trials typically aim at informing a clinical decision, the value of a phase IV non-inferiority trial hinges also on its clinical relevance. In such trials, clinical relevance would refer to the added benefit claims of a specific drug, apart from efficacy, relative to its comparator drug in the trial.

Several studies have suggested that anti-diabetic insulin analogue treatment might increase cancer risk. The aim of this study was to review the postulated association between insulin and insulin analogue treatment and breast cancer development, and plausible mechanisms.

Findings from nonrandomized studies on safety or efficacy of treatment in patient subgroups may trigger postlaunch randomized clinical trials (RCTs). In the analysis of such RCTs, results from nonrandomized studies are typically ignored. This study explores the trade-off between bias and power of Bayesian RCT analysis incorporating information from nonrandomized studies.

Drug development for rare diseases is challenging, especially when these orphan drugs (OD) are intended for children. In 2007 the EU Paediatric Drug Regulation was enacted to improve the development of high quality and ethically researched medicines for children through the establishment of Paediatric Investigation Plans (PIPs). The effect of the EU Paediatric Drug Regulation on the marketing authorisation (MA) of drugs for children with rare diseases was studied.

Recent results of patients with advanced melanoma treated with first-line BRAF-MEK inhibitors in clinical trials showed 5-year survival in one-third of patients with a median overall survival (OS) of more than 2 years. This study aimed to investigate these patients' real-world survival and identify the characteristics of long-term survivors. The study population consisted of patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma with a BRAF-V600 mutated tumor who were treated with first-line BRAF-MEK inhibitors between 2013 and 2017. Long-term survival was defined as a minimum OS of 2 years from start therapy. The median progression-free survival (mPFS) and median OS (mOS) of real-world patients ( n  = 435) were respectively 8.0 (95% CI, 6.8-9.4) and 11.7 (95% CI, 10.3-13.5) months. Two-year survival was reached by 28% of the patients, 22% reached 3-year survival and 19% reached 4-year survival. Real-world patients often had brain metastases (41%), stage IV M1c disease (87%), ECOG PS ≥2 (21%), ≥3 organ sites (62%) and elevated LDH of ≥250 U/I (49%). Trial-eligible real-world patients had an mOS of 17.9 months. Patients surviving more than 2 years ( n  = 116) more often had an ECOG PS ≤1 (83%), normal LDH (60%), no brain metastases (60%), no liver metastases (63%) and <3 organ sites (60%). Long-term survival of real-world patients treated with first-line BRAF-MEK inhibitors is significantly lower than that of trial patients, which is probably explained by poorer baseline characteristics of patients treated in daily practice. Long-term survivors generally had more favorable characteristics with regard to age, LDH level and metastatic sites, compared to patients not reaching long-term survival.

To assess access (availability and affordability) to oxytocin and misoprostol at health facilities in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia to improve prevention and management of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH).

Annually, about 2.7 million snakebite envenomings occur globally. Alongside antivenom, patients usually require additional care to treat envenoming symptoms and antivenom side effects. Efforts are underway to improve snakebite care, but evidence from the ground to inform this is scarce. This study, therefore, investigated the availability, affordability, and stock-outs of antivenom and commodities for supportive snakebite care in health facilities across Kenya.

Several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been linked to neuropsychiatric adverse effects in patients, including depression and suicidal ideation and behavior.

The aims of the present study were to assess antiplatelet drug use patterns after a first myocardial infarction (MI) and to evaluate the determinants of antiplatelet nonpersistence.

Noninferiority trials are used to assess whether the effect of a new drug is not worse than an active comparator by more than a noninferiority margin. If the difference between the new drug and the active comparator does not exceed this prespecified margin, noninferiority can be concluded. This margin must be specified based on clinical and statistical reasoning; however, it is considered as one of the most challenging steps in the design of noninferiority trials. Regulators recommend that the margin should be defined based on the historical evidence of the active comparator (the latter is often the well-established standard treatment of the disease), which can be performed by different approaches. There are several factors and assumptions that need to be accounted for during the process of defining the margin and during the analysis of noninferiority. Three methods are commonly used to analyse noninferiority trials: the fixed-margin method; the point-estimate method; and the synthesis method. This article provides an overview of analysing noninferiority and choosing the noninferiority margin.

To identify genetic factors contributing to type 2 diabetes (T2D), we performed large-scale meta-analyses by using a custom ∼50,000 SNP genotyping array (the ITMAT-Broad-CARe array) with ∼2000 candidate genes in 39 multiethnic population-based studies, case-control studies, and clinical trials totaling 17,418 cases and 70,298 controls. First, meta-analysis of 25 studies comprising 14,073 cases and 57,489 controls of European descent confirmed eight established T2D loci at genome-wide significance. In silico follow-up analysis of putative association signals found in independent genome-wide association studies (including 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls) performed by the DIAGRAM consortium identified a T2D locus at genome-wide significance (GATAD2A/CILP2/PBX4; p = 5.7 × 10(-9)) and two loci exceeding study-wide significance (SREBF1, and TH/INS; p < 2.4 × 10(-6)). Second, meta-analyses of 1,986 cases and 7,695 controls from eight African-American studies identified study-wide-significant (p = 2.4 × 10(-7)) variants in HMGA2 and replicated variants in TCF7L2 (p = 5.1 × 10(-15)). Third, conditional analysis revealed multiple known and novel independent signals within five T2D-associated genes in samples of European ancestry and within HMGA2 in African-American samples. Fourth, a multiethnic meta-analysis of all 39 studies identified T2D-associated variants in BCL2 (p = 2.1 × 10(-8)). Finally, a composite genetic score of SNPs from new and established T2D signals was significantly associated with increased risk of diabetes in African-American, Hispanic, and Asian populations. In summary, large-scale meta-analysis involving a dense gene-centric approach has uncovered additional loci and variants that contribute to T2D risk and suggests substantial overlap of T2D association signals across multiple ethnic groups.

Reimbursement decisions are conventionally based on evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which often have high internal validity but low external validity. Real-world data (RWD) may provide complimentary evidence for relative effectiveness assessments (REAs) and cost-effectiveness assessments (CEAs). This study examines whether RWD is incorporated in health technology assessment (HTA) of melanoma drugs by European HTA agencies, as well as differences in RWD use between agencies and across time.

To identify the occurrence and determinants of protocol-publication discrepancies in clinical drug trials.