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441 SOS
clear winner in Council election Thirteen of the 17 pharmacists
elected to the newly constituted Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society are openly declared supporters of the Save Our Society campaign
...more
441 Concerns
raised about out-of-hours funding Pharmacy contractors in
Wales have been told that local health boards do not have the funds to
pay for pharmacy out-of-hours rotas, according to the Company Chemists
Association ...more
441 Scottish
survey to assess impact of out-of-hours changes The impact
of GPs opting out of out-of-hours care is being assessed by a survey
sent to community pharmacists in Scotland this week ...more
441 Shipman
pharmacist case not to be heard in High Court No further legal
action is to taken in the case of Ghislaine Brant, the pharmacist who
supplied diamorphine to murderer Harold Shipman ...more
441 Bextra
sales suspended Sales and marketing of the cyclo-oxygenase-2
(COX-2) inhibitor valdecoxib (Bextra) have been suspended following concerns
about the risk of serious skin reactions ...more
442 Mild
asthma may not require daily corticosteroid use Intermittent
courses of inhaled or oral corticosteroids could replace daily use of
inhaled steroids for some asthma patients, results from a new study indicate
...more
442 Diet
unlikely to affect most patients’ medicines The risk
of interactions between food and medicines is real, but not of great
clinical significance for most people, members of the Committee on the
Safety of Medicines and the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food,
Consumer Products and the Environment decided at a recent meeting of
the two organisations ...more
442 Draft
fitness-to-practise guidance for PCTs published by DoH Draft
guidance on how primary care trusts should interpret the fitness-to-practise
provisions of the new pharmacy contract has been published by the Department
of Health ...more
442 SPAC
abolished The Standing Pharmaceutical Advisory Committee,
which currently has no members and has not met since 1999, has been abolished
...more
442 Pharmacist
candidate for general election Donald Wood, a locum pharmacist
in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, is standing in the general election on
5 May as an independent candidate for the Barnsley Central constituency
...more
442 Animal rights
extremism The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill received
Royal Assent last week, making the Bill an Act of Parliament ...more
443 Public health
topics for NICE guidance announced The first public health
topics for evaluation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence have been announced ...more
443 Mental health services included in NPC’s medicines management collaborative The third wave of NHS trusts to join the National Prescribing Centre’s hospital medicines management collaborative was announced this week. Of the 25 trusts joining the collaborative, nine are from mental health trusts — the first time mental health services have been included in the collaborative
...more
443 Boots sells
OTC division to return to retail roots Boots Healthcare International,
which makes over-the-counter medicines, is to be sold by Boots Group
Plc, leaving the company with retail operations only and associated support
services ...more
443 Moss starts
MUR service Moss Pharmacy has carried out its first medicines use review (MUR) — an advanced service under the new community pharmacy contract
...more
443 Asda announces
new pharmacies Plans to open pharmacies under the new 100-hour
opening rule have been announced by Asda ...more
443 Welsh advertising
campaign Cardiff Local Health Board has launched an advertising
campaign to highlight the money wasted in Wales each year by people ordering
unnecessary repeat medicines ...more
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444 Disappointing
result for strategies to delay Alzheimer’s disease Donepezil
(Aricept) may have a small beneficial effect on clinical progression
to Alzheimer’s disease among patients with mild cognitive impairment,
according to US researchers. However, they report that vitamin E provides
no such benefit in these patients ...more
444 Nutritional
supplement has steroid-sparing effect in colitis An oral supplement
enriched with a combination of fish oil, fermentable oligosaccharides
and antioxidants can decrease the need for oral corticosteroids in patients
with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis, study data collected over six
months suggest ...more
444 All people
over 50 should take a daily low-dose aspirin All people over
the age of 50 years should take 75mg aspirin daily, according to a researcher
from the University of Wales College of Medicine ...more
444 Education
on herbal remedies Patients and prescribers need education
on the risks and potential interactions of herbal remedies ...more
444 Long-acting
naltrexone effective Long-acting intramuscular naltrexone
reduces heavy drinking in alcohol-dependent patients over six months,
trial data suggest ...more
444 Antivirals
for flu Following reports of low levels of influenza viruses
circulating in the community the Department of Health has advised that
it is no longer appropriate to prescribe antiviral drugs for the treatment
or prevention of flu in England, in accordance with National Institute
for Clinical Excellence guidelines. However, it says that antivirals
should still be considered when outbreaks among at-risk groups are reported
...more
445 Combination
vaccine shows reduced effectiveness New data suggest that
a combination pneumococcal-meningococcal vaccine may not be a suitable
replacement for separate pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines ...more
445 NHS prescription
cost increase slows down More than 686 million GP prescriptions
for medicines worth over £8bn were dispensed in England in 2004
...more
445 Industry
failing to produce innovative drugs Prescrire International,
a French drug bulletin that provides independent reviews, has once again
failed to find a drug worthy of its annual Golden Pill award ...more
445 Experts wanted
to advise ministers on medicines Pharmacists and other experts
are now being sought to be members of the Commission on Human Medicines,
which replaces the Committee on Safety of Medicines and Medicines Commission
later this year ...more
445 MHRA rules
that Wyeth undermined the CSM The Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency has upheld a complaint against Wyeth regarding
Efexor (venlafaxine) ...more
446 Diabetes
patients ill-informed about their condition People with diabetes
are not being told enough about their condition, according to Diabetes
UK ...more
446 NICE criticised
for failing to outline frequency of glucose testing All people
with type 1 diabetes should have access to a blood glucose monitor at
least four times a day, according to guidance published by the Self-monitoring
Blood Glucose Consensus Group ...more
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal