MSU School of Pharmacy

Welcome to the MSU School of Pharmacy's webpage.

Pharmacy Student's Orientation 2012

The First Pharmacy Student's Orientation in MSU by MPhC

Asian Federation for Pharmaceutical Science Conference 2011

Organizers and participants of Asian Federation for Pharmaceutical Science Conference 2011

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Bowling Tournament's Group and Lane Arrangement

Attention to all participants of bowling tournament,

Below are the Group and Lane Arrangement of the Bowling Tournament, please make sure your name are in the list and remember which group and lane you are in. Your cooperation is greatly needed in order to make this event a success.
The colors indicate different batch of participants:
  • Blue - Diploma in Pharmacy
  • Red - Bachelor in Pharmacy Year 1
  • Green - Bachelor in Pharmacy Year 2
  • Purple - Bachelor in Pharmacy Year 3
  • Yellow - Bachelor in Pharmacy Year 4 
*You may click on the picture to zoom in...





Thursday, September 13, 2012

An Aspirin a Day Lowers Cancer Mortality, New Data Confirm


August 10, 2012 — Results from a new study support the daily use aspirin to help prevent death from cancer.
However, questions remain about the size of the potential benefit, lead author Eric J. Jacobs, MD, from the American Cancer Society (ACS) in Atlanta, Georgia, told Medscape Medical News.
Dr. Eric Jacobs
"We were prompted to do the study because a recent analysis pooling results from existing randomized trials of daily aspirin for the prevention of vascular events found an estimated 37% reduction in cancer mortality among those using aspirin for 5 years or more [Lancet. 2012;379:1602–1612]," Dr. Jacobs said.
"But uncertainty remains about how much daily aspirin use may lower cancer mortality. The size of this pooled analysis was limited, and 2 very large randomized trials of aspirin taken every other day found no effect on overall cancer mortality," he explained.
To clarify how much daily aspirin use might lower the risk for fatal cancer, Dr. Jacobs and his colleagues analyzed information from 100,139 predominantly elderly participants in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort who reported using aspirin on questionnaires.
The study was published online August 10 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The participants, who did not have cancer at the start of the study, were followed for up to 11 years.
The researchers found that daily aspirin use was associated with an estimated 16% lower overall risk for cancer mortality, both among people who reported taking aspirin daily for at least 5 years and among those who reported shorter-term daily use.
The reduction in overall cancer mortality was driven by a decrease of about 40% for cancers of the gastrointestinal tract (such as esophageal, stomach, and colorectal cancer) and a decrease of about 12% for cancers outside the gastrointestinal tract.
Too Soon to Recommend Aspirin to Prevent Cancer
"Although recent evidence about aspirin use and cancer is encouraging, it is still premature to recommend that people start taking aspirin specifically to prevent cancer," Dr. Jacobs said.
"Even low-dose aspirin can substantially increase the risk of serious gastrointestinal bleeding. Decisions about aspirin use should be made by balancing the risks against the benefits in the context of each individual's medical history, and any decision should be made only in consultation with a healthcare professional," he explained.
He added that expert committees developing clinical guidelines will consider the totality of the evidence on risks and benefits when guidelines for aspirin use are updated.
"I hope this study and other recent promising research about aspirin will lead to studies that look very carefully at daily aspirin use over long periods of time to more clearly understand aspirin's effects on specific cancers," Dr. Jacobs said.
Big Picture Is Positive
In an accompanying editorial, John A. Baron, MD, from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, writes that "overall, the well-conducted ACS study is an echo of other data on aspirin and cancer mortality, not a resounding confirmation."
The "big picture" on aspirin use and cancer is "very positive," he noted. "The drug clearly reduces the incidence and mortality from luminal gastrointestinal cancers, and it may similarly affect other cancers. This is exciting: simply taking a pill can prevent cancer incidence and cancer death."
However, like Dr. Jacobs, Dr. Baron urges caution with regard to the widespread recommendation to use aspirin to prevent cancer.
Just because aspirin is effective "does not mean it necessarily should be used. Aspirin is a real drug, with definite toxicity. As for any preventive intervention, the benefits must be balanced against the risks, particularly when the benefits are delayed whereas the risks are not," he writes.
Dr. Jacobs has disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Dr. Baron reports being a consultant to Bayer, and holding a use patent for the chemopreventative use of aspirin, currently not licensed.
J Natl Cancer Inst. Published online August 10, 2012. AbstractEditorial
Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/768917?src=mp

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Can too much sugar cause diabetes?


Diabetes is one of those diseases we all 'sort of' know about — something to do with sugar, right?

Well, if you 'sort of' know that much, here are some facts you should know for sure: diabetes can lead to blindness, heart attack, stroke and its incidence has tripled in the last ten years — there's a new case diagnosed every seven minutes.

So it affects millions of us.

But the good news is, for most people, it's largely preventable. But how?

Our reporter, Dr Andrew Rochford, is going to put a commonly held belief about diabetes to the test. Andrew is going to over indulge his sweet tooth — and it's all in the name of medical research.

Sugar is often associated with Australia's fastest growing chronic disease — diabetes. But what we want to know is can too much sugar in your diet actually cause diabetes?

>Essentially, diabetes is related to elevated blood sugar levels, so the logic goes, eat more sugar, get diabetes.

Associate Professor Maarten Kamp is a diabetes expert at the Gold Coast hospital: "Currently more than 1.2 million Aussies have diabetes and only half of those are diagnosed, so half the people with diabetes are unaware of it. There's a further two million or so people who are at risk of developing diabetes, having a condition we call pre-diabetes."

It's forecast that by 2010, 1.8 million Australians will have diabetes. That will put them at risk of heart disease, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage and a whole host of other nasties.

Here's how diabetes happens:

To get the energy we need to survive, our body converts some of the food we eat into sugars, also known as glucose. At the same time, our pancreas is creating a hormone called insulin, which acts like a key, binding to cells and allowing them to absorb that glucose. But people with diabetes don't produce enough insulin, or that insulin doesn't work properly, so it's like they've lost the key — the cell door stays locked and the glucose stays in your blood.

"And that means that whilst there is plenty of glucose in the blood, too much glucose, and that's what's damaging, and isn't getting into the cells properly where it's needed to provide energy for the body," says Professor Kamp.

Andrew also needs to declare a personal interest: "My dad has diabetes and we've had some scary times with this illness. Diabetics have to keep a careful balance between insulin and glucose in his body. So my dad has to inject insulin four times a day. If he gets the balance wrong, then he can fall into a coma — called a hypo."

Unfortunately the diabetes has put a lot of strain on my wife and children particularly when I have hypos in the middle of the night and four and five-year-old kids see their father being carted down the stairs by ambulance men. Andrew unfortunately has seen that on a couple of occasions and I'm sure he's not too happy about it," says Michael Rochford.

Fortunately those attacks, which can be fatal, are rare.

There are two types of diabetes, Andrew's dad is a Type 1:

"Type 1 diabetes is predominantly caused by being at risk with having inherited genes that place people at risk and we think it's then set off by particular types of infections. It's not absolutely clear what causes Type 1 diabetes," says Professor Kamp.

But most people with diabetes, nearly 90 percent of sufferers are Type 2.

"Type 2 diabetes again people have a predisposition to it, genetic predisposition, but it largely develops as a result of overweight, inactivity, over-nutrition that we see in our society nowadays," says the Professor.

Type 2 diabetes usually starts around age 45, but a recent report showed children in Australia are now suffering from the disease.

Which brings us back to our test…

First Andrew has his normal insulin and glucose levels recorded through a blood test. Then comes the good part — a pig-out in a lolly shop.

Andrew: "It's a tough gig, but I'm up to the challenge … If a sugar overdose can cause diabetes, all this lot ought to do the trick … Finally a test I can enjoy — guilt-free."

It sounds logical — the more you eat, the higher the levels, so after Andrew has binged for 24 hours he heads off to have his blood sugar levels tested again. Remember, the body absorbs sugar, by producing insulin, which unlocks the cell doors. A non-diabetic person produces enough insulin to cope with as much glucose as we throw at it, and keep the blood sugar normal.

So what do Andrew's results say?

"Now on the day when I had the high sugar diet — the diet we should all avoid — my blood sugar stayed the same, which you'd expect from someone without diabetes. But my insulin level was through the roof, my pancreas was working overtime to try and maintain my blood sugar at that level," says Andrew.

But his system did cope — despite the binge, his blood sugar level stayed normal, and that means eating sugar is not a direct cause of diabetes.

But if Andrew kept that high-sugar diet up, he could develop insulin resistance and he'd certainly put on weight, which is a major problem.

"Obesity is a very important factor in contributing to diabetes it's certainly the main factor that's contributing to the epidemic of
diabetes that we have," says Professor Kamp.
So how do you know if you have diabetes?

Some of the symptoms include:
·         Fatigue
·         Passing urine frequently
·         Constant thirst
·         Infections that are slow to heal
If you are diabetic or at risk of it, diet is one area you can really take control of to improve your situation.

>Chef Peter Howard has done just that. Food is Peter's passion, but as he himself admits, he loved it just a bit too much: "Always eating, always drinking, not really caring what I was eating and not really caring what I was drinking just as long it was a lot of both."

But all that's changed since he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes can't be cured but Peter is controlling his condition with diet and exercise — so far he doesn't need insulin shots. He now walks every day and does weights and crunches and he's lost 15 kilos.

What did Peter have to cut out of his diet?

"Mostly fats, I loved deep fried things so the fats had to go. Sugars … I loved sweet things, absolutely loved sweet things, just adored them so they just had to go and I think actually the amount was the thing as well, and the constancy. So now I do eat very, very well and I eat a lot, but I eat a lot of really good food and what I'm always looking for is food that's high in fibre."

He's so passionate about living better, Peter's even brought out his own cookbook with recipes for good health.

The plain truth is we're sitting on an obesity time bomb that could explode into a massive diabetes epidemic. But we can change the future by changing how we eat right now.

So there are many causes of diabetes but we're happy to report that sugar isn't one of them. But does that mean you can stay in a lolly shop and gorge yourself? No, because if you eat too much sugar then you'll put on weight and obesity is a risk factor.

So all the fun aside, diabetes isn't a laughing matter — you can protect yourself with a healthy diet and regular exercise and if diabetes runs in the family or you have any concerns go and see your doctor.
·   Why do people normally inject insulin instead of taking a pill? Because if they swallowed it, digestive enzymes would destroy it before the body could use it.

Source: http://health.ninemsn.com.au/whatsgoodforyou/theshow/694040/can-too-much-sugar-cause-diabetes

Pharmacist Seek RM5 Per Visit


With reference to the report entitled “Pharmacists seek RM5 per visit” (New Straits Times, 28 July 2012), the Ministry of Health is cognizant of the integral role played by pharmacists in the provision of healthcare in this country. Previously, pharmacists were mainly involved in the manufacturing, quality control and supply of medicines. Today, this has changed and pharmacists are actively involved in patient focused services and it is not uncommon for community pharmacists to provide services such as advice on the management of minor ailments, medication counselling, smoking cessation and weight management programs.

In most countries, pharmacists are paid a professional fee based on the services provided and the types of drugs dispensed. Currently, there is no standardised fee schedule in Malaysia for pharmacists unlike for doctors and dentists. For this to happen, there are several things which need to be put in place such as a fair drug pricing system, standardisation of service provision and a monitoring system by the government and the professional body itself.

Accreditation of community pharmacies against benchmarking standards has already been initiated through collaboration between the Ministry of Health, the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society and the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health to ensure that they consistently deliver a high standard of care. The Ministry is also in the process of developing a medicines pricing system through which there will be uniformity in medicine charges. The introduction of mandatory continuing professional education will also help to ensure that practising pharmacists are equipped with up-to-date knowledge and that they provide the best standards of care to their clients.

The Ministry of Health will ensure that the public is not burdened when they seek professional help at the pharmacy and any form of remuneration is in line with fair medicines pricing and the provision of quality pharmaceutical services.


Dato’ Eisah Binti A. Rahman
Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Services
Ministry of Health Malaysia

Source: New Straits Times, 28 July 2012, Page 3 & MyPSA's Facebook Page