HYPOCRISY: Think this over, gents

Regarding the issue of birth control coverage and religious employers, I thought the issue was having the employer groups OFFER the option of contraceptives, then the employee could make the choice of whether or not to take them. It is NOT forcing the employee to buy or use the birth control — it would be a choice. However, as we see over and over again, any kind of choice for women is a really, really bad word for the conservative right (wrong) in any context.

Safe to take after expiration date?

The expiration date on bottles of over-the-counter and prescription medications tells consumers how long the drug contained within will maintain full potency and safety under ideal storage conditions.

Inspectors arrest 15 in prescription drug case

Opiates originated from Tijuana pharmacies

SAN DIEGO - U.S. border inspectors are not only seizing drugs coming into the country from Mexico - they're making arrests for drug smuggling that's going the other way.

FDA allows over-the-counter morning-after pill, lifts age limit

PILLS: Drug companies questioned

I would like to sound off about our pharmaceutical companies and our pharmacies. In the last four months my prescriptions have changed makers four times. With each change, my pills have gotten weaker and weaker. The pharmacies are buying from the cheapest pharmaceutical companies, not caring that they are being made in China. They both only care about the money. No one is thinking about the person taking the medicine.

Express Scripts cuts payments for customized drugs

No over-the-counter for Plan B pill

Election-year politics seen in move by Obama administration

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a surprise move with election-year implications, the Obama administration's top health official overruled her own drug regulators and stopped the Plan B morning-after pill from moving onto drugstore shelves next to the condoms.

Even a little too much

Much has been made recently of the potential risk posed by taking too much acetaminophen (Tylenol). As a result, the FDA has set the maximum dose of acetaminophen at 4,000 milligrams over a 24-hour period. In addition to the attention being paid to single overdoses (when a person takes too many pills at once), new evidence has emerged that reveals the dangers of so-called "staggered overdoses." This term refers to taking even slightly too much acetaminophen over a period of several days.

British patients click online to see doctor

Sites offer consultations, medication to patients

LONDON - The doctor will see you now: Just click here.

Morning after pill OK for ages 15 and up

Over-the-counter birth control? Drugmaker seeks FDA approval

Many conservative groups stress they are only interested in curtailing abortion

Dangers of overprescribing kids' antibiotics

Parents must carefully consult with their children's pediatricians before deciding to treat their kids with antibiotics. It is important for parents to understand that prescribing antibiotics to children unnecessarily raises the risk of developing antibiotic-resistant infections in both the child and society as a whole. For this reason, health experts have been warning of the dangers of antibiotic over-prescription for years. Yet, a recent study involving nearly 65,000 outpatient visits by children under the age of 18 shows that pediatricians write more than 10 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions annually, mostly for respiratory conditions. About one-quarter of antibiotic prescriptions are given to children with respiratory conditions that will not respond to antibiotics, such as asthma, bronchitis, influenza and allergies.

Expanded use of prostrate cancer drug

The FDA recently approved the expanded use of a drug that was initially approved to treat prostate cancer patients whose disease had progressed after treatment with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel. Now, Zytiga can also be used to treat men with late-stage, hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer before they undergo chemotherapy. Zytiga works by decreasing production of the male sex hormone testosterone, which stimulates the growth of prostate tumors. The approval of this expanded use of Zytiga was made under the FDA's priority review program, which provides an accelerated six-month review for medications that may present major advances in treatment or provide a treatment when adequate therapy is not available for the treatment of disease.

Five deaths connected to overdoses

Police issue another warning about fentanyl

5 deaths connected to overdoses

Udall swipes at opponent's birth-control plan

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Democratic Sen. Mark Udall went after his opponent's proposal for over-the-counter birth control Friday, bringing big names to a suburban Denver battleground to argue that Rep. Cory Gardner's plan doesn't make him the "new kind of Republican" he has been claiming to be in ads.

Do you take OTC medications seriously?

According to one survey, nearly one-third of consumers polled said that they did not consider over-the-counter (OTC) medications to be as "serious" as prescribed medications. Are you among those who think this way?

Is it safe to buy pet meds online?

Dear PropellerHeads: I'm hoping to save a little money. Is it safe to buy my pet medicines from an online pet pharmacy?

Telling computers, humans apart

Dear PropellerHeads: I purchased tickets to a Salvador Dali exhibition on the Web and the order form asked me to "enter the code below." Underneath were some random letters written in a wavy font. Even for a Dali site, this seemed weird. What gives?

Pfizer maneuvers to protect Lipitor from generics

TRENTON, N.J. - Lipitor is so valuable that Pfizer is practically paying people to keep taking its blockbuster cholesterol medicine after generic competition hits the U.S. market this week.

Generic-drug tsunami warning!

Patients currently taking prescription drugs should know that, over the coming months, an unprecedented number of expiring drug patents will unleash a virtual tsunami of generic drugs.