January 30, 2012
Dr.
Robert Mangione, Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health
Professions at St. John’s University, was a guest on Health Talk, a
nationally-syndicated radio program hosted by Dr. Ronald Hoffman,
on Wednesday afternoon. The topic of the Daily Feature
was the dangers of gluten in medications for patients with celiac
disease.
The 35-minute segment initially aired on WOR Radio (710 AM) at
12 a.m. January 26, but can be heard via podcast
here.
Dr. Mangione, along with Dr. S. William Zito, Professor of
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Dr. Somnath Pal, Professor of Pharmacy
Administration, have partnered with the National Foundation for
Celiac Awareness (NFCA) to survey individuals with gluten
intolerance to determine if they believe that they have experienced
an adverse drug event due to the presence of gluten in a
medication. The survey results will also be used to identify
representative over-the-counter and prescription drugs that were
reported to cause adverse effects which they will analyze to
determine their gluten content.
This project, entitled, “Gluten in Medication: Qualifying the
extent of exposure to people with celiac disease and identifying a
hidden and preventable cause of an adverse drug event” is funded by
a $50,000 grant awarded to NFCA by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). Dr. Mangione, who is a NFCA Scientific/Medical
Advisory Board Member, Dr. Zito, and Dr. Pal were asked to work
with NFCA to conduct the research in just a few short weeks. Over
two-thousand responses to the initial survey distributed to the
celiac disease patient population have been received already and
more responses are anticipated.
Click
here to read more about the NFCA study.