To protect public health, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has changed the licence for valproate medicines (Epilim, Depakote and generic brands). Valproate must no longer be prescribed to women or girls of childbearing potential unless they are on the pregnancy prevention programme (PPP). Valproate is a treatment for epilepsy and bipolar disorder. [...]
Use of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in integrated urgent care settings is to be rolled out nationally following a successful pilot. It will mean faster processing of prescriptions, enabling out-of-hours and urgent care services to spend more time treating patients. Patients seeking care out-of-hours or from urgent care settings, such as walk-in centres, minor [...]
Influenza vaccines that better target the influenza surface protein called neuraminidase (NA) could offer broad protection against various influenza virus strains and lessen the severity of illness, according to new research published in Cell. Current seasonal influenza vaccines mainly target a different, more abundant influenza surface protein called hemagglutinin (HA). However, because influenza vaccines offer [...]
The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) has released survey results that show seven basic standards of pharmacy safety are regularly not being met and is demanding action to protect patients, pharmacists, and the tax payer. The PDA are concerned that while pharmacies are allowed to fail to meet these standards, it is pharmacists who are keeping [...]
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate) for the treatment of a type of cancer that affects the pancreas or gastrointestinal tract called gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs). This is the first time a radioactive drug, or radiopharmaceutical, has been approved for the treatment of GEP-NETs. Lutathera is indicated [...]
Final guidance, developed by NICE and Public Health England, is advising GP and healthcare professionals how they should treat sore throat, a common respiratory tract infection. Respiratory tract infections are one of the main reasons people visit their GP, or seek help from a pharmacist. Around one-in-four (27 per cent) GP appointments made for respiratory [...]
Community pharmacists in GP practices can significantly relieve pressure on doctors and nurses by providing patient-focused services that help free up appointment times, according to a new independent report recently released. The NHS England-funded report was undertaken by experts from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. This pilot project was seeking to evaluate [...]
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Learning from the incidents handled by the PDA, MORPh is delivering free risk management training for PDA members working in primary care, and GP practice-based pharmacists. Primary care pharmacy is an established branch of the profession, and primary care pharmacists have considerable experience working both at a primary care organisation and GP practice based levels [...]
Researchers at Dartmouth, Stanford University, and IBM Research, conducted a critical review of existing literature to determine whether social media big data can be used to understand communication and behavioural patterns related to prescription drug abuse. Their study found that with proper research methods and attention to privacy and ethical issues, social media big data [...]
