Pharmaceutical policies used by private health insurance companies in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Currently, the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI) is the body responsible for regulating health insurance in the KSA. While the cooperative health insurance schedule (i.e.

The US FDAs withdrawal of the breast cancer indication for Avastin (bevacizumab).

On November 18, 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) announced that breast cancer indication for Avastin (bevacizumab) had been withdrawn after concluding that the drug has not been shown to be safe and effective for the treatment of breast cancer. The specific indication that was withdrawn was for the use of bevacizumab in metastatic breast cancer, with paclitaxel for the treatment of patients who have not received chemotherapy for metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer. The US FDAs decision has been met with emotion and confusion among the public and health professionals.

The usefulness and scientific accuracy of private sector Arabic language patient drug information leaflets.

Background: Inadequate access to useful scientifically accurate patient information is a major cause of the inappropriate use of drugs resulting in serious personal injury and related costs to the health care system. The definition of useful scientifically accurate patient information for prescription drugs was accepted by the US Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in 1996 as that derived from or consistent with the US FDA approved professional product label for a drug. Previous quality content studies found that English language patient drug information leaflets distributed by US pharmacies failed to meet minimum criteria defining useful and scientifically accurate information.