[HERA-QUEST: HTA evaluation of generic pharmaceutical products to improve quality, economic efficiency, patient safety and transparency in drug product changes in hospitals].

In view of the rising cost pressure and an increasing number of drug shortages, switches between generic drug preparations have become a daily routine in hospitals. To ensure consistently high treatment quality and best possible patient safety, the equivalence of the new and the previous drug preparation must be ensured before any change in the purchase of pharmaceutical products takes place. So far, no easily usable, transparent and standardized instrument for this kind of comparison between generic drug products has been available.

Changes in lipid profiles after switching to a protease inhibitor-containing cART--unfavourable effect of fosamprenavir in obese patients.

Objective: One focus in the medical care of HIV-infected patients today is cardiovascular risk reduction. Metabolic disturbances occur frequently in patients taking protease inhibitors (PI) and are a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. With few published head-to-head studies substance-specific differences concerning metabolic effects are insufficiently defined.