Objective: We analyzed the characteristics of ligands of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) of new drugs approved, and the time dependent changes of these new drug approvals over three decades from 1980 to 2009 in Japan.
Methods: The receptor therapeutic targets of 185 new drugs were distributed 20 receptor families of GPCR.  Most of new drugs which targeted GPCR were the ligands of class A receptors.  Among the class A receptors, the receptors of amine family, such as adrenaline, dopamine, histamine, serotonin and muscarinic receptor were the targets of new drugs.  One hundred and ten of 185 new drugs were the antagonist and other 75 were the agonist of GPCR.  Whether the new drug is agonist or antagonist depended on the receptor subtype.  The time dependent changes of new drug approval were different among the drugs depending on which GPCR was targeted.  Approval of new drugs which targeted some GPCR decreased time dependently.  In contrast, approval of new drugs which targeted other GPCR increased time dependently or continuously retained.
Results: The results obtained in this study indicated characteristics of targeted GPCR, and time dependent changes of new drugs approvals, and suggest the future aspect of new drugs.

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Objective: To quantitatively investigate the history of medical pharmacy research by pharmacists in Japan, original article titles from the Japanese Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences (Jpn J Pharm Health Care Sci) and the Journal of Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists (JJSHP) were analyzed by text-mining.
Method: The titles of all original articles (2,611 and 2,260 articles) published in Jpn J Pharm Health Care Sci and JJSHP between 1975 and 2009 were collected from article databases and analyzed using KH Coder, the free software for quantitative text analysis of the Japanese language.  KH Coder extracts basic text information data by counting the occurrence rate of certain words.  Article titles were assigned to nine research categories according to coding rules, and the categorization results were analyzed quantitatively.
Results: Between 1975 and 1989, “pharmaceutical investigation” was the major area of research in the Jpn J Pharm Health Care Sci.  Articles assigned to the category “drug therapy” gradually increased through the 1990s and, since 2000, “drug therapy” has dominated medical pharmacy research.  In the JJSHP between 1975 and 2004, no characteristic research area was found, and mainly research articles directly related to pharmacist practice were published.  However, from 2005 to 2009, articles assigned to the “drug therapy” category accounted for 34% of all published articles making “drug therapy” the major research area in the JJSHP.  Thus, in recent years, there is no obvious difference in research areas between the two journals.
Conclusion: Our analyses suggest that drug therapy research is now at the center of medical pharmacy research by pharmacists in Japan.

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Objective: In the management of drug information, pharmacists are required to appropriately transmit information to the corresponding medical staff.  However, it is unclear whether the transmitted information is received and utilized effectively.  In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of drug safety information transmitted to doctors by pharmacists and investigated the requirements of doctors for the transmitted drug safety information in Okayama University Hospital.
Design and Methods: We performed the assessment via questionnaire from doctors who had been sent drug safety information by electronic mail (e-mail) from January to October 2010.  The return rate and responses for the questionnaire were investigated.
Results: For the study time period, 15 cases of e-mail drug safety information transmissions occurred.  The questionnaire was sent to 204 doctors, and the recovery rate of the questionnaire was 46.1%.  Seventy-six percent of doctors who responded to the questionnaire answered that the e-mail information was useful for the clinical practice.  Among the comments, it was noted that an improvement in the content of e-mail information would allow doctors to access the required information more conveniently.
Conclusion: In this study, it was demonstrated that the majority of doctors were satisfied with the transmission of drug safety information using e-mail, although some improvement was needed.  Furthermore, it was considered that the feedback assessment and re-construction of information transmittal system were important to improve usability and availability of the drug information service.

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Objective: Adequate periconceptional intake of folic acid decreases the risk of neural tube defects.  The present study aimed to investigate pharmacists’ awareness of the importance of folic acid intake for the prevention of neural tube defects and to identify factors associated with pharmacists’ awareness.
Design: Questionnaire survey.
Methods: A self-administered questionnaire regarding the importance of folic acid intake for the prevention of neural tube defects was distributed to pharmacists who attended educational seminars offered by the Sendai City Pharmaceutical Association in December 2010.
Results: Among the 166 respondents, 104 (62.7%) pharmacists were aware that folic acid intake decreases neural tube defects.  After stratification for age and sex including history of delivery, female gender and history of delivery were significantly associated with the awareness of the importance of folic acid intake only among pharmacists younger than 40 years old. Of 104 pharmacists who recognized the importance of folic acid intake for the prevention of neural tube defects, 51.0% and 27.9% recognized that women should begin intake of folic acid before conception and should take about 400 μg of folic acid per day during pregnancy, respectively.
Conclusion: Although about 60% of pharmacists recognized that folic acid intake decreases the risk of neural tube defects, many did not know the intake level required to effectively prevent neural tube defects.  Therefore, more aggressive promotion of the awareness of the importance of folic acid intake among pharmacists is warranted.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to ascertain information on supplements and health foods desired by consumers, as well as consumer demands in pharmacies and drugstores.
Method: We conducted a questionnaire survey of 740 patrons of two drugstores.  And data from this questionnaire survey was analyzed by simple and cross tables.
Results: We received responses from 206 patrons (response rate: 27.8%).  The level of recognition that some supplements should not be taken by consumers with past illnesses was low among those who are older than 50 years.  Furthermore, the percentage of the population that does not recognize the possibility of interactions between supplements was higher.  In addition, it was suggested that, regardless of the low recognition level, consumers did not try to improve their knowledge by obtaining more information.  People who take supplements to improve dietary imbalances were found to have a strong desire for a short course in pharmacies and drugstores, and they also desire supplement advisers to be available at each drugstore in comparison with people who don’t select the choice “to improve dietary imbalances”.
Conclusion: Thus, the present findings suggest that the level of consumers’ knowledge and their desired information differ depending on age.  Furthermore, consumers’ demands in pharmacies and drugstores differ depending on consumers’ intent to take supplements.  Therefore, it is important for pharmacists to provide information that is useful for individual consumers in consideration of consumers’ age and intent, and pharmacists must be able to independently identify consumers’ needs.

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Objective: The purposes of this study were to verify the actual state and to identify the problems associated with research activities by pharmacists.
Methods: The abstracts presented at the 42nd and the 37th Japan Pharmaceutical Association (JPA) Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science were investigated.  They were categorized into six research types: “Outcome research”; “Intervention research”; “Observational study”; “Status report”; “Case report”; and “Other”.  They were then ranked according to evidence level, with “Outcome research” ranked the highest.  In addition, “Outcome research”, “Intervention research” and “Observational studies” were checked for whether they had structured abstracts, and form scores were awarded.
Results: We found that only 0.8% of abstracts were “Outcome research”.  but the level was higher at the 42nd Congress than the 37th (p=0.03).  Structured abstracts were also more common at the 42nd Congress than at the 37th (p<0.01).  However, the form scores were not significantly different between the 42nd and 37th Congresses.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that pharmacist research activities are improving, but that there is still room for further development.  The referee system and the guidelines for research design are useful methods to encourage more activity.  The target of this study was community pharmacy, and further studies are necessary for hospital pharmacy.

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Objective: The sports community has placed its great hope on pharmacist since the establishment of the Accredited Sports Pharmacist System.  Thus, we constructed an anti-doping database for pharmacist so that pharmacist can support appropriate drug use and contribute to the sports community.
Methods: The database was constructed by using Microsoft®Access 2007, based on our previously prepared anti-doping list.
Results: 686 prescription drugs and 268 ingredients for non-prescription drug were registered in the data base.  It was able to retrieve the advisability of use for athlete, blood half-life and the other notes of the drugs easily and promptly.
Conclusion: We confirm that pharmacist can provide drug information easily, promptly and from the viewpoint of pharmaceutics by utilizing the database including necessary information for anti-doping.

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Objective: To clarify the barriers pharmacists face in handling patients with adverse drug events at community pharmacies and to propose solutions.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Methods: One hundred-twenty-one pharmacists, who worked and experienced to work at community pharmacies (76.0%), hospitals (22.3%), or elsewhere, participated in this study.  All of them were divided into 12 groups and asked to note the barriers, and abstract and structure them through discussion in each group according to the KJ-method.  On the other hand, workers at community pharmacies including people with experience were also asked to fill out a prepared questionnaire on barriers.
Results: Six groups structured the barriers from the perspective of professional flow as pharmacists and the other groups structured them from the perspective of a medical care team.  The barriers emerging from both structures were (a) difficulty in identifying adverse drug reaction and assessing its grade at community pharmacies, (b) lack of standardized protocols for informing physicians from community pharmacies, (c) not being informed about a physician’s assessment of suspicious adverse drug reactions, and (d) difficulty in explaining adverse events to patients and their families.  Those barriers were reported by a high percentage of respondents to the questionnaire.
Conclusion: The barriers are all crucial in order to avoid health damage caused by medication at community pharmacies and should be urgently solved.

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Objective: Several drugs can cause analytical interference in clinical laboratory tests.  To prevent errors in clinical judgment as a result of false data, we investigated the information available on the interference of ethical drugs in these tests.
Methods: We examined the information available by collecting and evaluating information in package insert leaflets, collecting and evaluating clinical data on three drugs (bucillamin, captopril, and epalrestat) which affect clinical laboratory test results, and conducting a questionnaire survey of healthcare workers.
Results: From the information available on package inserts, 227 drugs were identified as having the potential to interfere with the chemical reactions used in clinical laboratory tests.  However, the insert information is not sufficient for use in clinical settings because the frequency rate and causative factors of interference are not stated clearly.  The clinical survey results reveal that 40% of patients taking bucillamine and 20% of patients taking epalrestat tested false-positive for urinary ketones.  According to the questionnaire results, medical technologists were more interested than pharmacists and physicians in how drugs affect clinical laboratory tests.
Conclusion: The information currently available on the interference of drugs in clinical laboratory tests is problematical, and it is therefore necessary to collect more clinical data for the proper interpretation and evaluation of abnormal laboratory values.

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