Editorial
Pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenomic considerations in managing use of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir and molnupiravir and dermatological treatments
The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in its impact on global health, economic, financial, psychosocial and political systems. The World Health Organization estimates approximately...
Others
Nanospheres of Biodegradable Polymers: A System for Clinical Administration of an Anticancer Drug Paclitaxel (Taxol®)
Paclitaxel (Taxol®) is a diterpenoid extracted from the bark of a rare, slow growing Pacific yew or Western yew tree (Taxus brevifolia). Its antitumour...
Others
Pharmacogenetics: Role in Modifying Drug Dosage Regimens
Synder in 1932 wrote the first report on the Mendelian inheritance of the inability to taste phenylthiourea. Twenty-five years later, Arno Motulsky suggested hereditary...
Others
Post-Release Drug Treatment Risks: Strategies to Minimise Harm to Patients
Physicians have long accepted unreliable evaluations of the risks attached to pharmacotherapy, i.e. treating our patients with drugs. The reasons for the uncritical attitude...
Others
Clinical Drug Evaluation: The Regulatory Perspectives
Evaluating new drugs for marketing approval is a highly specialised and knowledge-intensive activity. This is especially so if the intention is to conduct quality,...
Others
Meta-analyses of Clinical Drug Trials—Gold Standard Reviews or Statistical Alchemy?
Informal review and synthesis of scientific evidence has been practised for as long as experiments have been replicated. The idea of quantitatively combining the...
Others
Megatrials of Drug Treatments: Strengths and Limitations
A “megatrial” is a very large randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) recruiting many thousands of patients from many centres in order to assess the...
Others
Clinical Drug Trials: Practical Problems of Phase III
There has been a rapid increase in clinical trial activity in Singapore and other parts of Asia. Randomised clinical trials are the “gold standard”...
Others
Design of Phase I and II Clinical Trials in Oncology and Ethical Issues Involved
Drug development is costly and time-consuming in terms of economic, patient and research resources. An integrated effort involving academia, industry, and regulatory authorities is...
Others
A Review of Software for Data Management, Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials
In clinical trials, subjects are usually entered one at a time, and their responses to treatment monitored sequentially. Regular monitoring of trial progress during...
Others
Assessment of Patient Sociodemographic Variables in Clinical Trials—Can Patient Characteristics Make a Difference?
The pathway by which patients enter clinical trials can be a selective, non-random process. In order for patients to enter clinical trials, a set...
Others
Estimation of Number of Subjects Required for Comparison of Drug versus Control in Adaptive Designs
Traditional designs for clinical trials make balanced (or 50-50) allocation of patients to treatments. This is done in the past to minimise the variance...
Others
Randomisation: Magical Cure for Bias?
There is general consensus that randomised clinical trial (RCT) can provide the most valid conclusions about effects of different treatment as eligible patients are...
Others
The Ethics of Placebo-Controlled Trials in Developing Countries to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV
Placebo-trials on HIV-infected pregnant women in developing countries like Thailand and Uganda have provoked recent controversy. Such experiments aim to find a treatment that...
Editorial
Evaluating Drugs from Cradle to Grave—Evolving Systems for a Complex Activity
Are medicines dangerous chemicals or life enhancing agents? The answer is ‘Both of those things, often at the same time, and worse in the...
Review Article
Chemoprevention of Colorectal Cancer – Experimental Approach and Clinical Applications
The age-old adage of “Prevention is Better than Cure” is still very relevant in today’s practice of medicine. Many randomised population trials have already...
Review Article
The Correction of Myopia Evaluation Trial: Lessons from the Study Design
“A properly planned and executed clinical trial is a powerful technique for assessing the effectiveness of an intervention”. While each new clinical trial involves...
Others
4th FY Khoo Memorial Lecture 2008: Nasopharyngeal Cancer Workgroup – The Past, The Present and The Future
Thank you Madam Chairman. First, I would like to thank the Singapore Radiological Society and the College of Radiologists, Academy of Medicine Singapore for...
Review Article
Health-related Quality of Life in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: An Update
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-system autoimmune disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. With improvements in survival in SLE, attention has also...
Review Article
Ceftaroline—An Anti-MRSA Cephalosporin and Its Implications for Singapore
Ceftaroline fosamil (TAK-599 or PPI-0903)—the prodrug of the active metabolite, ceftaroline—was launched in Singapore in March 2013 under the tradename Zinforo® by AstraZeneca. It...
Original Article
An Analysis of Blinding Success in a Randomised Controlled Trial of Fish Oil Omega-3 Fatty Acids
There has been growing interest in the use of dietary supplementation to treat psychiatric disorders. In particular, supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids has been...