The Society

Committee proceedings

Law and Ethics
Practice
Science
Education

Law and Ethics

Action on emergency supply five-day limit The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is to propose to the Government that it should remove the five-day limit on the period of treatment for emergency supplies of prescription-only medicines. That decision was made by the Law and Ethics Committee on March 6, when four of the Council's committees met at the Society's headquarters.

The committee took the view that the regulations should allow a pharmacist to supply the smallest pack consistent with meeting the patient's need for the medicine.

The proposal would emphasise the long history of responsible and effective use of the present regulations by pharmacists. It would also explain that if pharmacists had to split patient packs they then faced difficulties with the patient information leaflet.

In addition, some patients had no realistic prospect of obtaining a further supply to allow continuation of treatment after five days. For example, problems could occur when airport pharmacies were asked to make emergency supplies for patients who were going abroad for more than five days.

Electronic transfer of prescriptions Following discussion by the Law and Ethics Committee on a proposal for legislation to facilitate pilots of the electronic transmission of prescriptions, the head of pharmacy law (Mr Steve Lutener) undertook to seek clarification of a number of points of confusion, particularly in relation to Scotland and Wales. Once clarification had been received, he would inform the Society's Scottish and Welsh secretaries.

POM Order amendment The Practice Committee and the Law and Ethics Committee agreed that the Society should support Medicines Control Agency proposals to relax controls on the supply of several prescription-only medicines (POMs). The MCA intended to allow restricted non-prescription sale of clobetasone butyrate and to extend the existing exemptions from prescription-only supply for products containing fenticonazole nitrate, fluconazole, prochlorperazine maleate, terbinafine hydrochloride, miconazole with hydrocortisone acetate, and stannous fluoride.

The Society would not object to a proposed restriction of adrenaline eye-drops to prescription-only control. It would also not object to POM classification for 21 substances contained in recently licensed products. However, the Society would request early consideration of POM exemptions for two of those substances — fexofenadine hydrochloride and flutrimazole

Practice

SOPs for dispensing The Practice Committee considered that proposed guidance on standards for dispensing should not preclude the self-checking of dispensing by suitably trained technicians. The committee took that view when it considered a draft document setting out guidance on developing and implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for dispensing activities. (All pharmacies will be required to have such procedure in place by January 1, 2005.)

The committee decided that, when the draft guidance went before the Council, the Council should be asked to remove a statement that “self-checking by non-pharmacists is not recommended” (which related to accuracy checking procedures and not the professional check undertaken by pharmacists). The committee felt that self-checking by technicians might be appropriate in some practice settings, where the technician concerned had been trained to carry out accuracy checking and was competent to do so.

The committee noted that several training providers offered “checking technician” courses. At least one was open to both hospital and community pharmacy technicians.

Data sheet compendium The Practice Committee agreed to ask the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry to continue to publish the Compendium of Data Sheets and Summaries of Product Characteristics in printed form as well as making it available through the internet. Following a request for views from the ABPI, the Society had consulted the committees of its hospital, industrial and community pharmacists groups. Their consensus had been that the hard copy version of the compendium remained an essential tool for pharmacists and other health professionals.

Science

“Co”- names The Science Committee heard that the Society had had a further success in its opposition to the use of “co-” names for medicinal products. A pharmaceutical company had withdrawn a proposal to register two new “co-” trade names after pressure from the Society and another company.

Diagnostics The Science Committee learnt that an extended role for community pharmacists in diagnostic testing had been strongly supported at the inaugural meeting of a new pharmacy group set up by the British In Vitro Diagnostic Association.

The group's objectives were to review the opportunities for in vitro diagnostics both in the discovery, development, testing and marketing of pharmaceuticals and in diagnostic testing in settings outside the traditional laboratory environment. The group constitution included pharmaceutical companies, diagnostics manufacturers, the Department of Health, the Department of Trade and Industry, the National Pharmaceutical Association and the Society.

The group had warmly received a presentation by the Society's chief pharmacist (Professor Tony Moffat) on the role of the community pharmacist in diagnostic testing. The chief scientific officer at the Department of Health (Dr Peter Greenaway) had reported that the Department strongly supported the concept of pharmacists having a larger role in diagnostic testing.

The Society was to arrange a further meeting with representatives of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and diagnostics manufacturers to discuss the possible funding of a community pharmacy project by the EPSRC.

Drug delivery research The final report of the working group on drug delivery had now been published (PJ, March 10, p324; see also p388) and was being distributed to a number of organisations, the Science Committee was told. The Government's research councils had taken on the working party's views, and the Society was arranging a meeting to discuss its recommendations with research council representatives. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council had already incorporated the recommendations into a strategy document and was calling for proposals.

Therapeutic use of cannabis The Science Committee heard that the Medicines Control Agency had advised the working group on therapeutic use of cannabis that participants in the 15-week trials of cannabis therapy would now be able to continue to receive the medicine for up to a year after the close of the trial. The committee was advised that the trial on spasticity had commenced in January and the trial on acute pain would start in April.

Education

Degree approval The Education Committee approved for the purposes of registration the degrees held by a number of those who had graduated in the summer of 2000 from formerly accredited three-year degree programmes. In each case, the head of the school of pharmacy concerned had certified that the graduate had completed the programme in accordance with the conditions of the Society's former accreditation.

The Committee noted that, although accreditation of three-year degree programmes had ended at the close of 1999, the Society had always intended to give specific approval to the degrees of those who, for illness or other reason, did not graduate from such programmes until after that date.