The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7349 p575
14 May 2005

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News summary

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.

The medicines given the go ahead are:

· Abacavir/lamivudine combination (Kivexa) used with other antiretrovirals for treatment of HIV-1

· Abacavir (Ziagen) 300mg as a once-daily treatment used in combination with other antiretrovirals for treatment of HIV-1

· Candesartan cilexetil (Amias) as add-on therapy to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, or when ACE inhibitors are not tolerated, in patients with heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction

· Eplerenone (Inspra) in combination with standard therapy to reduce risk of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity after myocardial infarction

· Paracetamol intravenous infusion (Perfalgan) for short-term treatment of moderate pain following surgery or short-term management of fever in children

· Triptorelin (Gonapeptyl depot) for central precocious puberty in girls under nine years of age and boys under 10 years

The medicines that are deemed suitable for use but with restrictions applied are: adefovir dipivoxil (Hepsera) for use in patients with chronic hepatitis B who show resistance to lamivudine; imiquimod (Aldara) for topical treatment of small superficial basal cell carcinoma in adult patients for whom surgery or cryotherapy is contraindicated; methylphenidate modified release (Equasym XL) for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder when giving a midday dose of methylphenidate is problematic or inappropriate; and valsartan (Diovan) to improve survival following myocardial infarction but only in patients who do not tolerate angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.

The medicines that are not recommended for use by the SMC are: anagrelide (Xagrid) for reduction of elevated platelet counts in patients with essential thrombocythaemia; cinacalet (Mimpara) for secondary hyperparathyroidism; cytarabine liposomal suspension (Depocyte) for intrathecal treatment of lymphomatous meningitis; eflornithine cream (Vaniqa) for facial hirsutism in women; ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin) for rituximab-relapsed or refactory CD20+ follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; and pegvisomant (Somavert) for acromegaly.