Pre-operative therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors is associated with an increased risk of mortality, use of inotropic support, post-operative renal dysfunction and new onset of post-operative atrial fibrillation, based on research reported online Aug. 12 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In adults with vascular disease but without macroalbuminuria, the effects of telmisartan on major renal outcomes were similar to those of placebo, according to an analysis of the TRANSCEND trial published July 7 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Thinking "outside the medicine cabinet" is paying off in Australia, where a doctor-pharmacist partnership is reducing hospitalizations for heart failure, researchers reported Aug. 18 in Circulation: Heart Failure.

Merck, Schering-Plough and the companies' cholesterol joint venture, Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals (MSP), have entered into agreements to resolve, for a total fixed amount of $41.5 million, civil class action litigation currently pending against the companies relating to the purchase or use of Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin) and Zetia (ezetimibe).

Eli Lilly has launched an online registry detailing recent payments that it has made to physicians and other healthcare professionals for the first quarter of 2009, totaling $22 million. The company said it will update the registry quarterly going forward.

The FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) have launched a bilateral Good Clinical Practices initiative, designed to ensure that clinical trials submitted for drug marketing applications in the United States and Europe are conducted uniformly, appropriately and ethically.

Taking the most commonly-prescribed anti-diabetic drug, metformin, reduces an individual's risk of developing pancreatic cancer by 62 percent, according to research from the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, published in the Aug. 1 issue of Gastroenterology.

Sanofi-Aventis has made Multaq (dronedarone) 400 mg tablets available in pharmacies in the U.S. Multaq, an anti-arrhythmic drug, is indicated to reduce the risk of cardiovascular (CV) hospitalization in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter (AFL), with a recent episode of AF/AFL and associated CV risk factors, who are in sinus rhythm or who will be cardioverted.