The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7494 p327
22 March 2008

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

New AstraZeneca scheme will pay pharmacists to help patients take their medicines as prescribed

Pharmacists are to be paid by AstraZeneca to talk to patients about taking its medicines as prescribed, the manufacturer told The Journal this week.

Correction (29 March 2008) Symbicort is one of the four AstraZeneca products involved in the company’s “Making the most of your medicines” scheme and not Singulair as stated. The training described is being provided by NPC Plus, not the National Prescribing Centre itself.

Under AZ’s new “Making the most of your medicines” programme, pharmacists will be able to recruit patients taking Arimidex, Crestor, Nexium or Singulair with the aim of finding out what medication issue these patients might have and educating them to improve adherence.

Paul Hudson, primary care director at AZ, said: “We can’t just send the boxes to the pharmacy and think our responsibility has ended. I think as the pharmacist’s role grows, and as the professional component — the fee-for-service component — grows, we want to be part of that.

“We want a healthy relationship with pharmacy for the right reasons. Our programme happens very much after the prescribing decision has been made. This is not about influencing the prescriber it is about influencing patients to comply with treatment for a better outcome.”

After gaining patient consent, the pharmacist will be expected to get the patient to fill in a questionnaire about their medicine-taking behaviour. The results of this will then be used by the pharmacist to facilitate a discussion about adherence.

Pharmacists are to be paid £10 for each of up to three consultations per patient, and £5 for each of three follow-up submissions of data to AZ — a potential earning of £45 for each patient. The company expects each pharmacist might recruit around 60 patients in the first year of the programme.

Pharmacists wishing to take part will be provided with training from the National Prescribing Centre to strengthen their consultation skills.

A range of resources have also been adapted to facilitate the discussions. Further information is available online