Unlicensed and off-label drug use in a Swiss paediatric university hospital.

Background: Many medicines used in newborns, infants, children and adolescents are not licensed ("unlicensed") or are prescribed outside the terms of the marketing authorization ("off-label"). Several studies have shown that this is a common practice in various healthcare settings in the USA, Europe and Australia, but data are scarce in Switzerland.

Objectives: The aim of our prospective study was to determine the proportion of unlicensed or off-label prescriptions in paediatric patients.

Effects of interferons on human B-cell differentiation in vitro.

The effects of interferons (IFN) on in vitro differentiation of B-lymphocytes were studied. Peripheral lymphocytes from normal subjects were cultivated under polyclonal activator pokeweed mitogen (PWN) or Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) stimulation. The secreted Ig in the culture supernatants were measured for IgM by ELISA method.