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The best-selling brand-name drugs are not necessarily the most-prescribed medications in the United States…IMS Health recently revealed the 50 most-prescribed brand-name drugs and the 50 best-selling brand-name drugs between April 2014 and March 2015…Here are some noteworthy discrepancies between prescription drug sales and prescribing patterns for particular conditions:

1. Hepatitis C
2. Contraceptives
3. Multiple Sclerosis
4. Hypertension
5. HIV
6. Arthritis
7. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
8. Cancer

Up to a half of infections after surgery and over a quarter of infections after chemotherapy are caused by organisms already resistant to standard antibiotics in the US… Researchers have reported the strongest evidence yet that rising antibiotic resistance could have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or cancer chemotherapy… A 30% reduction in the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis could result in 120,000 additional infections and 6,300 infection-related deaths every year… Prophylactic antibiotics are used routinely in surgery, organ transplantation and cancer chemotherapy to prevent infections…Increasing antibiotic resistance threatens the safety of these procedures and could result in increased rates of morbidity, amputation or death.

The proportion of people reporting use of prescription opioids for reasons other than medical necessity fell between 2003 and 2013, but use disorders and overdose deaths increased…rate of nonmedical use of opioids – not using a prescription as directed, or using a prescription that was written for someone else – fell from 5.4 to 4.9 percent…the rate of use disorders rose from 0.6 to 0.9 percent… more patients are experiencing…progression from initial opioid use to frequent use…Drug overdose deaths involving prescription opioids increased from 4.5 to 7.8 per 100,000 people.. These numbers could come down if we reduce inappropriate opioid prescribing and use and develop new treatments for pain that are safer…

U.S. prices for the world's 20 top-selling medicines are…three times higher than in Britain… Researchers…also found U.S. prices were consistently higher than in other European markets…The United States, which leaves pricing to market competition, has higher drug prices than other countries where governments directly or indirectly control medicine costs…That makes it by far the most profitable market for pharmaceutical companies, leading to complaints that Americans are effectively subsidizing health systems elsewhere…Manufacturers say decent returns are needed to reward high-risk research…also point to higher U.S. survival rates for diseases such as cancer and the availability of industry-backed access schemes for poorer citizens…Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America says international comparisons are misleading because list prices do not take into account discounts available as a result of "aggressive negotiation" by U.S. insurers.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients could spend less time in the hospital if their doctors utilize a checklist of steps called order sets, according to findings published in the Canadian Respiratory Journal…Researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto…examined the effects of order sets on hospital stay…Using order sets to manage worsening COPD can lead to better medical care and better results for patients…By providing doctors with the best, evidence based information at the point in time when they are deciding on medications and tests for their patients, we can improve doctors' adherence to best practices…Our next step is to advocate for these order sets to be implemented across the healthcare system, to ensure that these patients receive best evidence based and standardized care..

…nonpartisan watchdog group called Project on Government Oversight published a report…that highlights flaws in the FDA’s 2010 approval of Pradaxa…group says this case study is a "cautionary tale" for U.S. legislators considering the 21st Century Cures Act which aims to expedite the drug approval process…Food and Drug Administration was "lax" and "permissive" in its approval…analysis suggests the FDA rubber-stamped the drug on the basis of a single poorly designed clinical trial that overlooked safety concerns…damning report comes at a time when Congress is considering the 21st Century Cures Act…

There is a rich potential to identify health trends…Mining patients' social media data could provide enormous insight into overall health outcomes…By handling social media posts much like big data, it just may be possible to link social media posts to health outcomes…If patients consent to sharing this data, a research database could be created, comparable to that of genomic databases. This database could be used by researchers to better understand the relationship between certain patients and their health.

Australia is altering its drug laws to allow for the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal and scientific purposes, removing a major hurdle to the establishment of clinical trials of the drug, the government said…Draft amendments to the Narcotics Drugs Act are being finalised to allow for the controlled cultivation of marijuana, giving patients access to "a safe, legal and sustainable supply of locally produced products for the first time,"…Australian manufacturers, researchers and patients currently have to access international supplies of legal medicinal marijuana, with cost, limited supply and export barriers making this challenging.

...soon, Apple Inc. iPhones and watches may be able to recognize when someone’s having an epileptic seizure, and call for help…Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed an app that can track and measure seizure symptoms, and is the first research app to combine sensors on both Apple’s watch and phone. Eventually, it may run in the background and alert caregivers that a patient is having an event….the app measures heart rate, movement and other data as the seizure progresses. The watch will also display queries designed to test whether the wearer is alert…

…public uproar about high drug prices has focused on outlandish cases…Biotech companies have launched late-stage clinical trials that could lead to federal approval of two marketable treatments backed by CIRM (California Institute for Regenerative Medicine), the state's $6-billion stem cell program…they may also put CIRM smack in the middle of a burgeoning debate over how to ensure access for all patients to life-enhancing or life-saving cures…stem cell and other advanced biologic treatments will be among the most expensive therapies...Proposition 71, the 2004 ballot initiative…was pitched to the voting public as an economic bounty waiting to be reaped…healthcare cost savings to the state government of as much as $6.9 billion, and up to $18.4 billion in savings for private insurers and other payers. Such savings haven't materialized. CIRM also requires companies to share their income from drugs developed with the program's backing on a sliding scale based in part on the magnitude of the profits.