Moxifloxacin, a new 8-methoxyfluoroquinolone, was evaluated in a large community-based study involving 16,007 patients over a 9-month period. This study was designed as a large post-marketing observational study of the speed, efficacy and tolerability of moxifloxacin when used in clinical practice for the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, or acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. Physicians and patients were specifically questioned about overall efficacy and safety as well as symptom relief. According to physicians' assessments 96.3% of patients were cured or improved after moxifloxacin treatment. Symptom relief ('feeling better') occurred in almost 70% of patients by day 3 and only 2.3% reported an adverse drug reaction. No individual adverse drug reaction was reported at a frequency above 1%. Among the 209 events considered as serious, only 34 were regarded as possibly or probably related to therapy. There were no moxifloxacin-related clinically relevant cases of phototoxicity, hepatotoxicity or cardiotoxicity. Overall, 92.1% of patients considered moxifloxacin to have been beneficial.

Acarbose was efficacious, safe and well accepted by Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes and subjects with IGT under day-to-day treatment conditions, both as monotherapy and in combination with other antihyperglycaemic medication.

This postmarketing surveillance study documents the therapeutic benefit and good tolerability and compliance of acarbose as mono- and combination therapy, even in elderly and multimorbid patients.

We assessed the safety, efficacy and patient acceptability of vardenafil (Levitra, Bayer HealthCare, Leverkusen, Germany) under real-life conditions in patients with erectile dysfunction (ED) in a multinational post-marketing surveillance study. An initial and up to two follow-up visits were documented for 29 358 German ED patients receiving vardenafil. Patients were interviewed about overall treatment success, and individual sexual attempts were evaluated in a patient questionnaire. Overall erectile improvement was reported by 93.9% of physicians, and similar improvement rates were reported for both 10 mg and 20 mg vardenafil dosages. Most patients experienced improved erections after the first (73.6%) or second (88.5%) tablet. Sexual attempts were successful with respect to partner penetration in 94.9% of patients and with respect to maintenance of erection during intercourse in 87.7% of patients. Adverse drug reactions were very rare (1.3% of patients). Vardenafil was highly effective, reliable and well tolerated in ED patients treated under real-life conditions.