[Counterfeiting of medicines, as a life threatening world tendency]. / A gyógyszerhamisítás, mint egészséget veszélyezteto világjelenség.

Application of counterfeit medicines is extremely dangerous, because neither their quality, nor their efficacy and the circumstances of their preparation are known. The most effective and well-known fight against counterfeit medicines is the assurance of closed medicine supply chain. In the present study beside the review of the anti-counterfeiting technologies, combined oral contraceptives purchased out of pharmacy were examined from the point of counterfeiting. Based on the results of the study it could be concluded that the medicines contained the correct ingredients, but the examined products were not marketing authorized in Hungary.

Evaluating triphasic oral contraceptives: the rationale for a randomized trial.

The randomized clinical trial is one of the major achievements of our times. Randomized trials set the standard for scientific rigor. They are medicine's closest approximation to the controlled experiments of the laboratory scientist. These studies prevent selection bias and minimize ascertainment bias. In addition, they are statistically efficient. There have been few randomized clinical trials comparing the metabolic effects and adverse drug experiences of low-dose oral contraceptives. Previous studies conducted with oral contraceptives containing higher doses of estrogen (equivalent to greater than 50 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol) may not be relevant today when low-dose preparations are more widely used. For this reason a randomized trial was conducted to compare three multiphasic oral contraceptives marketed in the United States.

[How to distinguish 2-phase (sequential) steroid contraceptives]. / Jak rozlisovat dvoufázová (sekvencní) steroidní kontraceptiva.

PIP: Sequential birth control pills are less common than monophasic pills, partly because the "first generation" sequential pills, which used estrogen only during the 1st part of the cycle, were more dangerous than the monophasic pills. Nevertheless, it is necessary to compare the "2nd generation" sequential pills which use an estrogen/progesterone combination in the 1st half of the cycle. Useful measures for comparison are estrogen content in equivalent doses of mestranol (EEME) and progesterone content in equivalent does of medroxyprogesterone-acetate (MPA). The Czech product Norbiogest (Spofa), along with Stedril-d (Wyeth), Microgynon (Shering), and Rigavidon (Richter) had the lowest dose of estrogen - .05 mg./day - in both parts of the cycle. The product Tri-Ervonum (Glaxo) has potent estrogen activity at .1mg/day throughout the cycle, but it is still less than the discontinued product Antigest (Spofa), which utilized 0.17 mg. estrogen daily, and was estrogen dominant in both parts of the cycle. Norbiogest (Spofa) is estrogen dominant in the 1st half of the cycle and progesterone dominant in the 2nd half. Norbiogest (Spofa) exhibits less extreme dominance in both parts of the cycle than does its parent drug, Biogest (Spofa). If the norethesterone in Norbiogest was replaced with norethesterone-acetate in equal weights, the 1st part of the cycle would be balanced, neither estrogen nor progesterone dominant. This "Neo"-Norbiogest would be similar to Perikursal (Wyeth).^ieng