Pharmaceuticals contraceptive

L-Fohc acid is available as a crystalline dihydrate containing 8% water. Approximately 80% of the commercial production is consumed for feed enrichment in animal nutrition. FoHc acid is being offered by the pharmaceutical industry for therapeutic and prophylactic use (see Pharmaceuticals). Pharmacological doses of fohc acid are commonly used as a rescue dose during cancer chemotherapy, in women using oral contraceptives, and alcohoHcs. Several studies have provided evidence that multivitamins or foHc acid (0.8—4 mg/day) supplementation prevent the majority of neural tube defects (101). 

Areas of Continued Research. Research continues in many academic and pharmaceutical laboratories throughout the wodd with the objective of improving oral contraceptives and better understanding their pharmacological and clinical actions. 

Drugs with endocrinological functions or side-effects are common, but oestrogenic hormones in oral contraceptives are particularly widely used. Pharmaceuticals and their metabolites eventually find their way into the environment, predominantly via excretion into sewage. ... 

A. G., and Perkins, B. H., Biodegradable fibers for the controlled release of tetracycline in treatment of peridontal disease, Proc. Int. Symp. Control. Rel. Bioact. Mater., 14, 289, 1987. Dunn, R. L., Lewis, D. H., and Beck, L. R., Fibrous polymer for the delivery of contraceptive steroids to the female reproductive tract, in Controlled Release of Pesticides and Pharmaceuticals (D. H. Lewis, ed.). Plenum Press, New York, 1981, pp. 125-146. 

The medical success of these drugs gave new emphasis to the pharmaceutical industry, which was boosted further by the commencement of industrial-scale penicillin manufacture in the early 1940s. Around this time, many of the current leading pharmaceutical companies (or their forerunners) were founded. Examples include Ciba Geigy, Eli Lilly, Wellcome, Glaxo and Roche. Over the next two to three decades, these companies developed drugs such as tetracyclines, corticosteroids, oral contraceptives, antidepressants and many more. Most of these pharmaceutical substances are manufactured by direct chemical synthesis. 

Historically, embryo-fetal development studies were mandatory to support inclusion of women of childbearing potential (WOCBP) in clinical trials. More recently, it has become admissible under appropriate circumstances to include WOCBP in early clinical trials before performing the embryo-fetal toxicity studies, provided that effective contraception is used. In Japan and Europe, data from adequately designed preliminary embryo-fetal toxicity studies, with as few as six females per group, may be used to support the inclusion of WOCBP in short-term clinical trials (18). The predictivity of such preliminary mammalian studies has not been established (see below), but it could be argued that they may be less predictive than alternative methods such as FETAX. We therefore expect FETAX to play an evermore important role in pharmaceutical development in the future. 

Frequently, the constant release of a drug from pharmaceutical dosage forms enables one to obtain a suitable pharmacological and therapeutic response. However, for therapy of certain pathologies, i.e. some heart and rheumatic diseases, or in the utilization of some drags such as contraceptive steroids and antibiotics, it would be more useful to obtain different plasma levels of the active principle at different times related to painful symptoms or circadian rhythms, etc. In these cases the desired therapeutic results can usually be obtained with frequent administration of conventional dosage forms which lead to a prompt absorption of the active principle. This kind of drag treatment is often compromised by a lack of full compliance by the patient. Until now there have been few systems that allow the release of the active principle in successive pulses at precise and well-controlled time periods [11,12]. 

The introduction of the sulfa drugs was followed by the development of the penicillin antibiotics. Fleming s chance observation of the anti-bacterial action of the penicillin mold in 1928 and the subsequent isolation and identification of its active constituent by Florey and Chain in 1940 marked the beginning of the antibiotics era that still continues today. At roughly the same time, the steroid hormones found their way into medical practice. Cortisone was introduced by the pharmaceutical industry in 1944 as a drug for the treatment of arthritis and rheumatic fever. This was followed by the development of steroid hormones as the active constituents of the contraceptive pill. 

Anonymous. Oral contraceptives. Risk of cervical cancer with long-term use in woman with high risk type of HPV. WHO Pharmaceuticals Newslett 2002 2 3-4. 

Foams can occur in the intestines where they may cause indigestion, pain, and/or a sense of being full, collectively known as dyspepsia [884]. Pharmaceuticals designed to combat dyspepsia usually contain antifoams, antacids, and possibly enzymes [884]. The most common antifoams seem to be polymethylsiloxanes (referred to as dimethicone in pharmaceutical literature [884]) mixed with hydrophobic particles, such as hydrophobic silica. The formulation is delivered as a tablet, suspension, or emulsion (simethicone tablets simethicone oral suspensions simethicone emulsions). Foams can also be used to administer drugs, such as in contraceptive foams. 

As indicated earlier, plant products can be useful as starting materials for the semisynthetic preparation of other drugs. An important example in this regard is the Mexican yam, which produces a steroid precursor (diosgenin) vital to the synthesis of steroidal hormones used in oral contraceptives (i.e., progesterone). The availability of diosgenin eliminates numerous expensive steps in the organic synthesis of the basic steroid molecule. It was this discovery that contributed to the development of the pharmaceutical company Syntex (now a subsidiary of Hoffman LaRoche) and the development of the first birth control pill. 

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