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571 Academic member of Society’s Council appointed Stephen Denyer, head of the school of pharmacy at Cardiff University, has been appointed as the academic member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council
...more
571 CHRE recommends audit of Society’s Infringements Committee External auditing of decision-making by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Infringements Committee has been suggested by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence
...more
571 CHRE
concerned about representation on regulatory review Concern
over the absence of representatives of many regulatory bodies from a
Department of Health review group has been expressed within the Council
for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence. But the council left it to individual
regulators to take up the matter with the DoH ...more
572 New
team moves into the Department of Health A new team of ministers
has been appointed to the Department of Health following the general
election last week in which junior health minister, Melanie Johnson,
lost her seat ...more
572 Sandra
Gidley clings to her seat in Romsey Sandra Gidley, the only
pharmacist in Parliament and the sitting Liberal Democrat MP for Romsey,
almost lost her seat in the general election ...more
572 Call
for WHO to co-ordinate disaster response The world needs a
network of experts and clear procedures to deal with mass fatalities
and psychological trauma caused by disasters, health care professionals
attending a World Health Organization conference in Phuket, Thailand,
have recommended ...more
572 OTC
market shrinks slightly after three years of slow growth The
real-terms value of the market in over-the-counter medicines fell during
2004 ...more
572 Fluoridation
report A report about water fluoridation intended to help
strategic health authorities and primary care trusts consider whether
to implement fluoridation schemes has been published by the British Fluoridation
Society, UK Public Health Association, British Dental Association and
Faculty of Public Health ...more
572 NICE
consults on social values The National Institute for Health
and Clinical Excellence is calling for views on making social value judgements
when developing guidance ...more
572 Failure
to monitor bird flu Countries affected by bird flu are not
sharing samples from infected people and poultry with the World Health
Organization, according to Nature ...more
573 “Personal control” could extend to 10 pharmacies One pharmacist could have “personal control” over up to 10 pharmacies, provided that there is still one supervising or duty pharmacist for every individual pharmacy, the Scottish Pharmaceutical Federation has said in its response to the Scottish Executive Health Department’s consultation on the pharmacy workforce
...more
573 PCTs need
clear point of contact at multiples Primary care trusts need a clear point of contact at multiple pharmacies, Digby Emson, chairman of the Company Chemists’ Association, said at the Primary Care conference in Birmingham last week
...more
573 Nucare launches
new pharmacist training programme Nucare has launched a new
pharmacist development programme that aims to provide independent pharmacists
with the skills and understanding needed for implementation of the new
community pharmacy contract ...more
573 Numark bone
screening Bone density screening could soon be available in
some Numark pharmacies following the launch of a new osteoporosis programme
...more
573 Pneumococcal
vaccine Pharmacists in Scotland will be reimbursed £9.02 plus VAT for each pneumococcal vaccine they supply this year
...more
573 Influenza
season summary A summary of influenza and other major respiratory virus activity for the 2004–05 season has been published by the Health Protection Agency
...more
574 US warning
on eczema drugs “lacks evidence base” Prescribing advisers in the UK should be guided by their own evidence-based risk/benefit assessment of topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs) rather than the US Food and Drug Administration’s theoretical concerns about the drugs’ cancer risks, dermatology leaders recommended this week
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574 FDA to put
PILs for all approved drugs on web Web-based patient information
leaflets are to be provided for all approved drugs, the US Food and Drug
Administration announced last week ...more
574 GI drugs
and antipsychotics can triple risk of cardiac death Use of
non-cardiac drugs that prolong the QTc interval is associated with an
almost three-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death, according to
Dutch researchers ...more
574 Three drugs
better than one for ischaemic heart disease Patients with cardiovascular disease have a better chance of survival if they take a combination of three drug classes — statins, aspirin and beta blockers — than if they take just one, a new prospective study reveals
...more
574 Herbal ingredient
guidance New guidance has been produced by the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to help manufacturers and suppliers
of products containing herbal ingredients determine whether a product
has a medicinal use and is therefore subject to government regulation
...more
574 Amiodarone
vs sotalol in AF Amiodarone and sotalol convert atrial fibrillation
to sinus rhythm equally effectively, say researchers ...more
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575 Industry
spends more on R&D than on marketing The supposition
that the pharmaceutical industry spends more on marketing than it does
on research and development is not true, according to Andrew Curl, deputy
director general at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
...more
575 Six medicines
given go ahead this month for use within NHS Scotland without restriction Of
the 16 medicines assessed by the Scottish Medicines Consortium this month,
six have been endorsed for use within NHS Scotland without restriction.
Conditions have been placed on the use of four of the medicines and the
SMC advises that the remaining six are not to be used ...more
575 Anagrelide
approved for use within NHS Wales The Welsh minister for health
and social services has endorsed the use of anagrelide (Xagrid) within
NHS Wales following the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group’s recommendations
...more
575 Evidence
lacking on value of H pylori eradication There is
a lack of clear evidence on the value of eradicating Helicobacter
pylori infection in patients with, or at high risk of developing,
gastric or duodenal ulcers, the latest issue of the Drug and Therapeutics
Bulletin concludes ...more
575 Benzodiazepine
prescribing Action that can be taken to reduce inappropriate
prescribing of benzodiazepines and Z drugs (zopiclone, zolpidem and zaleplon)
is described in the latest issue of the MeReC Bulletin ...more
R&D news
576 New class
of drugs for hereditary breast cancer enters clinical trials A
potential new class of drugs, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors,
to treat women with hereditary breast cancer has shown promising results
in animal studies and is about to enter phase I clinical trials ...more
576 Encouraging
data for methylphenidate patch Positive clinical trial data
for methylphenidate transdermal system (MTS) to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder in children were released by Shire Pharmaceuticals this week
...more
576 Alzheimer’s vaccine shows promise despite safety concern Immunotherapy may be useful in Alzheimer’s disease, two studies suggest
...more
577 Vaccines
prevent persistent infection with HPV A vaccine targeting
the human papillomavirus (HPV) types that are associated with 70 per
cent of cervical cancers and 90 per cent of genital warts is effective
in preventing persistent infection and clinical disease, according to
data presented at the International Papillomavirus Conference held in
Vancouver last week ...more
577 Role for
minocycline in HIV infection of brain Minocycline might have
a role in the treatment of patients infected with HIV, a new study suggests
...more
577 Antibodies
work against HIV Neutralising antibodies may have a role in
HIV prophylaxis in humans, say researchers ...more
577 Strategy
may overcome antiretroviral drug resistance A theoretical
strategy for blocking HIV growth and tackling drug resistance is published
in Nature Cell Biology this month ...more
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal