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I was wondering why I haven’t seen any Ambien commercials lately. According to the FDA,

Generic drugs cost about 20% to 70% less than their brand name counterparts. The Congressional Budget Office has reported that generic drugs save consumers an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion a year.

Here’s a list of some of the generic drugs approved by the FDA so far this year:

• Alendronate Sodium Tablets (Fosamax)
  Used for: Treating and preventing types of osteoporosis
  Originally marketed as: Fosamax, by Merck & Co.
  Date approved: Feb. 6, 2008
• Carvedilol Tablets (Coreg)
  Used for: Treating hypertension and heart failure
  Originally marketed as: Coreg, by SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline
  Date approved: Sept. 5, 2007
• Cetirizine HCl Tablets (Zyrtec)
  Used for: Treating symptoms of allergies
  Originally marketed as: Zyrtec, by Pfizer
  Date approved: Dec.12, 2007
• Granisetron Tablets (Kytril)
  Used for: Preventing nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy and radiation
  Originally marketed as: Kytril, by Roche
  Date approved: Dec. 31, 2007
• Oxcarbazepine Tablets (Trileptal)
  Used for: Treating certain kinds of seizures and epilepsy
  Originally marketed as: Trileptal, by Novartis
  Date approved: Oct. 9, 2007
• Pravastatin Sodium Tablets (Pravachol)
  Used for: Treating elevated cholesterol and preventing coronary events.
  Originally marketed as: Pravachol, by Bristol-Myers Squibb
  Date approved: Apr. 23, 2007
• Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets (Ambien)
  Used for: Treating insomnia
  Originally marketed as: Ambien, by Sanofi Aventis
  Date approved: Apr. 23, 2007

For more information, the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs maintains a frequently-updated list of generic drug approvals.

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Fetched from Food and Drug Administration Press Releases

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that Brownwood Acres Foods Inc., Cherry Capital Services Inc. (doing business as Flavonoid Sciences) and two of their top executives have signed a consent decree that effectively prohibits the companies and their executives from manufacturing and distributing any products with claims in the label or labeling to cure, treat, mitigate or prevent diseases.

The consent decree of permanent injunction is a result of the companies and their executives making unapproved drug claims and unauthorized health claims about their products, such as “Chemicals found in Cherries may help fight diabetes.” The companies are prevented from making these claims until the products are approved by the FDA as new drugs, exempt from approval as investigational new drugs, or until the claims on the products’ label and labeling comply with the law.

Brownwood Acres Foods Inc. and Cherry Capital Services Inc. manufacture and distribute various products including juice concentrates, soft fruit gel capsules, fruit bars, dried fruits, liquid glucosamine, and salmon oil capsules.

The companies have a history of promoting unapproved claims on their product labels, brochures, and Web sites, stating that the products cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent various diseases. Most recently, the companies’ Web sites referred customers to an apparently independent Web site, which was actually controlled by Brownwood Acres’ president and contained similar unproven statements claiming benefits for their products.

The FDA can order the companies to stop manufacturing and distributing any product if they fail to comply with any provision of the consent decree, the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act or FDA regulations. The companies are also required to pay $1,000 per violation per day in the event they fail to comply with the consent decree.

Fetched from Food and Drug Administration Press Releases

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting consumers, food service operators, and food retailers that New Era Canning Company, New Era, Mich., is broadening its nationwide recall of canned vegetable products for a third time because of the potential for its foods to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum).

Fetched from Food and Drug Administration Consumer Updates

FDA’s Strategic Action Plan sets forth the agency’s long-term strategic goals and objectives.

Fetched from Food and Drug Administration Consumer Updates

FDA issued an Early Communication on January 25, 2008, announcing that it will conduct a review of Merck/Schering Plough’s recently completed study on Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin) once the agency receives the final results