The FDA has accepted a New Drug Application for silodosin, a novel alpha1-adrenoreceptor antagonist, from Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of Corona, Calif. Watson is seeking approval of silodosin for the treatment of BPH symptoms.

The FDA announced that Baxter Healthcare Corporation, of Deerfield, Ill., has temporarily stopped manufacturing multiple-dose vials of heparin due to reports of severe allergic reactions and hypotension in patients who receive high "bolus" doses of the drug.

AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., has announced that the FDA has accepted for standard review its New Drug Application (NDA) for ferumoxytol as an IV treatment of iron deficiency anemia in CKD patients.

Simcor (Niaspan/simvastatin), the first fixed-dose combination of two widely prescribed cholesterol therapies, has been approved for use along with diet to lower levels of elevated total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, and to raise HDL cholesterol in patients with complex lipid disease when treatment with monotherapies are not considered adequate.

COLONIZATION with Oxalobacter formigenes may reduce the risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones, a study suggests.

UNIVERSAL ACCESS to health care might help to overcome racial and ethnic barriers to treatment for kidney disease, according to two studies.

Renal stone location does not significantly affect stone clearance rates in patients undergoing endoscopic lithotripsy, investigators conclude.

Bacterial endocarditis is more likely to develop among patients on a waiting list for a kidney transplant than among kidney transplant recipients, data show.

Irritative lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and nocturia are positively associated with diabetes, a study found. The relationship is greater in black than white men.

Once-daily tadalafil 2.5 and 5 mg is safe and effective in men with diabetes and erectile dysfunction (ED), investigators reported in Diabetes Medicine (2008;25:138-146).