The PDA has responded to the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI’s) consultation, which ran from 2nd October to 27th November 2017, on proposed new premises standards for registered pharmacies. The PDA challenged both the format and content of the new premises standards, saying that they appear to be a ‘significant retrograde step’ and that the [...]
Biosimilars have been available in the European Union since 2006. A new British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology analysis of publicly-available regulatory documents found no substantial differences in the reporting of safety information for biosimilars and related originators. The analysis included 19 biosimilars and six originators. Overall, 55 general safety concerns (12 low, 21 medium, and [...]
Minor adverse events (e.g., bad taste in the mouth and dizziness) occur more frequently with intranasal ketamine than with intranasal fentanyl in children with suspected extremity fractures. That is the primary finding of a study published in the December 2017 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, a journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). The [...]
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Juluca, the first complete treatment regimen containing only two drugs to treat certain adults with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) instead of three or more drugs included in standard HIV treatment. Juluca is a fixed-dose tablet containing two previously approved drugs (dolutegravir and rilpivirine) to treat [...]
Striving to serve and showcase the industry’s abundance of talent, the Northern Ireland Healthcare Awards has asserted itself as an unmissable annual event – and this year it’s set to be even bigger and better. The 2018 gala will be taking place on 22nd February at the Europa Hotel, Belfast, in which a host of [...]
Digital pills – gelatin capsules that contain an ingestible sensor along with medication – can help track patterns of drug use, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) clinicians are among the first to explore the application of this new technology among patients being prescribed opioids. In a paper published in the December issue of Anesthesia [...]
The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) is running a new campaign to promote the reporting of suspected side-effects from medicines. The campaign, which will continue across social media until Friday, forms part of an EU-wide awareness week that features a focus on over-the-counter medicines. While many people don’t experience any problems when using medicines, side-effects [...]
The recipients of the 2017 Scottish Pharmacy Awards were announced last week during a glamorous gala hosted by renowned television and radio presenter, Shereen Nanjiani. The annual ceremony honours the pharmaceutical sector’s emerging talent, as well as the steadfast service delivered by the healthcare workers year after year. Over 330 leading industry figures flocked to [...]
Scientists working to develop a ‘game-changing’ new antibiotic have made a significant advance towards creating commercially viable drug treatments by producing two simplified synthetic versions of the substance which are just as potent at killing superbugs, like MRSA as its natural form. The breakthrough by researchers at the University of Lincoln marks another important step [...]
People who overdose on paracetamol could be helped by a blood test that shows immediately if they are going to suffer liver damage. Researchers have said that the test – which detects levels of specific molecules in blood – will help doctors identify which patients arriving in hospital need more intense treatment. It will also [...]
