Could Grapefruit Juice Cut Drug Costs?


	Could Grapefruit Juice Cut Drug Costs?

BobbyDelray

11-27-2007 1:41 PM

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tags:

grapefruit, juice, alzheimer's, cyp3a4, zocor, lipitor, oncology

BobbyDelray says:

The WSJ reports, some researchers are now trying to use grapefruit juice to their advantage. A University of Chicago study is pairing grapefruit juice with rapamycin, which is sold by Wyeth as an immunosuppressant and is being studied to treat cancer.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/d1d93c84-c259-4ef5-99d7-bfe69280a1fc/457B3E06-A30C-4D67-8DBC-B2A3B5C5832C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/" href="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/" style="font-size: 11px;">blogs.wsj.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/">the WSJ <A target="blank" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119612613623804707.html">reports</A>, some researchers are now trying to use grapefruit juice to their advantage. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/">An enzyme that lives in the gut, charmingly named <A target="blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=gene&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=1576&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Gene.Gene_ResultsPanel.Gene_RVDocSum">CYP3A4</A>, breaks down drugs before they enter the bloodstream.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/">Grapefruit juice has a compound that temporarily gets rid of CYP3A4 — which allows more of a drug to enter the bloodstream. That can be a bad thing in some cases. Patients shouldn’t take statins (such as Pfizer’s Lipitor or Merck’s Zocor) with grapefruit juice, because doing so can cause the drug to build up to unhealthy levels in the body.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/blogs.wsj.com/img/4D562EA4-8B3D-4CB0-98F0-A1513A1BBB22" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/">It’s too early to tell how far this sort of thing might go, and standardizing grapefruit juice as part of a drug regimen could be tricky. But some docs think the grapefruit effect could ultimately allow patients to take lower doses of drugs.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/">Oral oncology therapies are costing $3,000 to $5,000 a month</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/11/27/could-grapefruit-juice-cut-drug-costs/">If we can lower the costs of those by 50%, you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars saved.”</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/457B3E06-A30C-4D67-8DBC-B2A3B5C5832C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>