The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7505 p679
7 June 2008

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News summary

Trial will not affect NHS budget

A clinical trial taking place in Scotland, which compares celecoxib with traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, will not result in increased prescribing costs for the NHS.

The SCOT trial (standard care versus celecoxib outcome trial) is being led by the University of Dundee and involves 16,000 patients at 400 GP practices. It will examine the drugs’ cardiovascular and gastrointestinal safety over a three-year period.

An NHS circular issued last week (PDF 60K) says that prescriptions issued by those GP practices participating in the trial will be tracked by the university and it will reimburse the Scottish Government for the additional cost of celecoxib dispensed through the trial, including a dispensing fee of 91.7p. These funds will then be distributed to NHS boards.

The trial is being funded by Pfizer.