News

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries launched a generic version of Letairis (ambrisentan) in the United States for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Generic ambrisentan will be available as 5 and 10 mg tablets. Letairis is marketed by Gilead in the U.S., while in Europe it is sold…

Cumbersome security procedures, rising airfares, and shrinking legroom have made commercial air travel difficult enough these days — even for healthy passengers. Imagine how much harder it is for patients with rare diseases who must get to doctors’ appointments or clinical trials that are hundreds of miles away from home.

Oral beraprost, in combination with standard therapy, may help decrease pulmonary arterial pressure, and improve heart function and exercise capacity in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH), a study says. The findings of the study, “Effect of beraprost on pulmonary hypertension due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction,” were published in…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for Cipla‘s ambrisentan generic tablets of 5 and 10 mg. These tablets are a generic therapeutic equivalent to Gilead‘s Letairis (ambrisentan; marketed by GlaxoSmithKline under the brand name…

Low-dose radiation given to two mouse models of pulmonary hypertension depleted disease-causing cells, preventing and reversing the development of the condition, researchers report. Their study, “Low dose 100 cGy irradiation as a potential therapy for pulmonary hypertension,” was published in the Journal of Cellular Physiology. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) develops due to…

Certain parameters of poor heart function are risk factors for early death among idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) patients who undergo lung transplant, a small Chinese study suggests. The study, “Risk Analysis of Perioperative Death in Lung Transplant Patients With Severe Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension,” was published in the journal…

Upon treatment with inhaled nitric oxide, oxygenation improved faster in preterm, near-term, and term newborns with hypoxic respiratory failure and pulmonary hypertension (PH), a Japanese study shows. The registry-based study, “An Analysis of Time to Improvement in Oxygenation in Japanese Preterm and Late Preterm or Term Neonates with…

Women with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) secondary to congenital heart disease (PAH-CHD) are at a high risk of heart failure, pulmonary hypertensive crisis, or even death during pregnancy, a study reports. Those at a higher risk appeared to be women with…

With an estimated 1.37 billion inhabitants, India will likely surpass China in five years as the world’s most populous country. That also means it will have more rare-disease patients than any nation. It already has more than twice as many as the 28-member European Union. Harsha K. Rajasimha, a genomics…

Levels of NT-proBNP can predict long-term outcomes and response to treatment with Uptravi (selexipag) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a post-hoc analysis of the Phase 3 GRIPHON trial shows. The study, “Association of NT-proBNP and Long-Term Outcome in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Insights from the Phase III…

Despite having better heart function and less severe disease, patients with a lung disease underlying their pulmonary hypertension (PH) have survival rates that are as poor as those with idiopathic PH, a study suggests. The study, “Outcomes of Lung Disease-Associated Pulmonary Hypertension and Impact of Elevated Pulmonary Vascular Resistance,”…

The heart’s ventricular mass may be an early prognostic biomarker for predicting the risk of heart failure and death in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a recent study suggests. The research, “Ventricular mass…