What the Orphan Drug Act has done lately for children with rare diseases: a 10-year analysis.

Objectives: The 1983 US Orphan Drug Act (ODA) provided incentives to stimulate treatment product development for patients with rare disease. This article highlights a decade of ODA contributions to this goal for children with RDs.

Methods: An internal US Food and Drug Administration database was the information source for orphan designations, marketing approvals, and prevalence numbers for 2000 to 2009.

Peripheral neuropathy in patients treated with leflunomide.

Objective: Our objective was to describe the clinical features, time course, and outcome of new-onset peripheral neuropathy occurring in patients treated with leflunomide.

Methods: Case reports of peripheral neuropathy submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration in association with leflunomide use were reviewed. Data on patient demographics, underlying medical conditions and medications, details of leflunomide therapy, and treatment and outcome of the neuropathy event were abstracted.

Allergic contact dermatitis from topical doxepin: Food and Drug Administration's postmarketing surveillance experience.

A total of 26 postmarketing cases of allergic contact dermatitis to doxepin 5% cream were reported to the Food and Drug Administration. Our findings suggest that allergic contact dermatitis was more common when treatment duration exceeded the recommended 8 days. Allergic contact dermatitis to doxepin cream should be considered in patients whose condition fails to improve or worsens with doxepin use.

Deaths associated with inappropriate intravenous colchicine administration.

Intravenous (IV) colchicine is occasionally prescribed for the treatment of acute gouty arthritis. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently received a report of death in a patient that was associated with inappropriate IV dosing of colchicine. This report prompted further investigation of other deaths associated with IV colchicine use in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) and the medical literature.

Aseptic meningitis associated with rofecoxib.

Rofecoxib is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is reported to act by selectively inhibiting cyclooxygenase-2. A review and analysis of reports sent to the Spontaneous Reporting System of the Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md, suggest that aseptic meningitis is associated with rofecoxib use. To our knowledge, there have been no published reports of aseptic meningitis occurring in association with rofecoxib use to date.