Pharmacists' perception of educational material to improve patient safety: A cross-sectional study on practices and awareness in Germany.

Educational material (EM) addresses particular safety information of medicinal products to healthcare professionals and patients. Since 2016, German national competent authorities label approved EM with a Blue Hand symbol. However, data is scarce regarding its usability as a safety communication tool in pharmacies to improve patient safety.

Trends in dispensing oral emergency contraceptives and safety issues: a survey of German community pharmacists.

Background Oral emergency contraceptives containing levonorgestrel or ulipristal acetate are available without prescription and only in pharmacies in Germany since March 2015. Due to this change community pharmacists are responsible for evaluating whether the product is appropriate and to educate women on proper use. Objective To measure the utilization of emergency contraceptives without a prescription and describe potential concerns and safety issues identified by community pharmacists in Germany.

Drug shortages may compromise patient safety: Results of a survey of the reference pharmacies of the Drug Commission of German Pharmacists.

Drug shortages are a complex problem and of growing concern. To evaluate implications of drug shortages in terms of outpatient and inpatient safety, the Drug Commission of German Pharmacists surveyed its two nationwide reference pharmacy networks: 865 community and 54 hospital pharmacies. Participants were asked to complete a six-question online survey, covering relevance and challenges of drug shortages in everyday practice as well as consequences for patient safety.

Structure-activity relationships of analogues of NF449 confirm NF449 as the most potent and selective known P2X1 receptor antagonist.

NF449 [4,4',4",4"'-(carbonylbis(imino-5,1,3-benzenetriyl-bis(carbonylimino)))tetrakisbenzene-1,3-disulfonic acid-octasodiumsalt)] was recently described to inhibit recombinant rP2X(1) receptors (Naunyn Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol. 364 (2001) 285).

Structure-activity relationships of suramin and pyridoxal-5'-phosphate derivatives as P2 receptor antagonists.

Extracellular adenine and uracil 5'-nucleotides are important signalling molecules that exert a great variety of effects in numerous tissues and cell types through the activation of P2 receptors. In the past eight years, an extended series of P2 receptors (P2X(17), ionotropic subunits; P2Y(1,2,4,6,11,12), metabotropic receptors) has been cloned from vertebrate tissues. In this rapidly expanding field, one of the main current challenges is to relate the cloned P2 receptor subtypes to the diverse physiological responses mediated by the pharmacological phenotypes of native P2 receptors.