Over 60 posters and short communications were presented at the conference. Patients were unwilling, in general, to pay more for over-the-counter products with reduced gastrointestinal side effects to replace their conventional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, concluded Dr Lillian Azzopardi and colleagues (University of Malta). The researchers recruited 660 clients from eight community pharmacies and three shopping centres. Of the sample, 40 per cent were not prepared to pay anything extra on top of the price of a pack of 48 ibuprofen tablets costing $6, despite 12 per cent of those questioned complaining of gastrointestinal side effects.
In Belgium, a one year clinical internship programme has been introduced for pharmacy students to encourage collaboration between physicians and pharmacists. Mr Gert Laekeman and colleagues (Katholieke University, Belgium) explained that the project was designed to enable the implementation of clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care teaching into the curriculum.
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