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Australian Pharmacist, National
01 Dec 2012
General News, page 921 - 132.42 cm²
Australian Magazines Trade - circulation 14,084 (Monthly)
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New drug delivery to save
womens' lives
A US$1 million grant will ensure a lifesaving drug formulation, that could
prevent thousands of women from the
fatal loss of blood after giving birth, will
be ready for human trials in 2013.
professional and the vials must be kept
refrigerated. This poses a major barrier for
women in developing countries, where
refrigeration is limited and more than
50% of women give birth at home
Under new funding through the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand
Challenges Explorations (GCE) initiative,
Monash University researchers will
engineer a drug that could save the lives
of up to 150,000 women in developing
countries who die each year at childbirth
from postpartum haemorrhage, an
uncontrolled loss of blood after delivery
Dr Michelle McIntosh said developing
oxytocin for aerosol delivery would
remove the need for refrigerated
storage and allowed patients to inhale
the drug immediately after childbirth,
resolving existing barriers to treatment in
developing countries
of a baby.
Led by Dr Michelle McIntosh,
researchers from the Monash Institute of
Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) and the
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health
Sciences will further test the stability and
efficacy of a dry powder formulation of
oxytocin in an aerosol inhalant format,
identify a suitable inexpensive inhaler
device, and prepare for clinical trials.
Oxytocin is widely used in the treatment
of postpartum haemorrhage and
currently can be administered via
injection only by a trained healthcare
'Every minute a mother will die from
pregnancy and childbirth associated
complications, and many of these deaths
will occur within 1-2 hours of giving birth
due to severe postpartum haemorrhage,'
Dr McIntosh said.
1...researchers will
engineer a drug that
could save the lives of
up to 150,000 women
in developing countries
who die each year...'