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The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has announced the margin delivery rates will increase from October as the agreed £100m write off is implemented. "The baseline margin allowance will remain £800m per year in 2022/23 and 2023/24," said PSNC. "Margin levels in the last two full years (2020/21 and 2021/22), as measured by the Margin Survey of independent pharmacies, were in excess of the baseline allowance, meaning that an excess was accrued." As new services have been introduced and take up of these has accelerated, the amount of unallocated funding left in the CPCF is now less than it previously was. As such, the value of the Transitional Payments will decrease from its current level. Some of the unallocated funding remaining in 2023/24 will be repurposed into a Flat Payment for all contractors (see details below). Over the course of the second half of 2022/23, the value of the Transitional Payments will be phased down. This will start in October 2022 with a reduction in payment levels to approximately 85% of the current level, as shown in the following table:

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has rejected the use of olaparib on the NHS for treatment of adults with hormone-relapsed prostate cancer with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations which has spread to other parts of the body. In a draft guidance issued today (January 5) NICE said evidence around the drug made by AstraZeneca was uncertain and approving it would not be a good use of NHS funds. Current treatment for metastatic prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormone therapy is chemotherapy with docetaxel, cabazitaxel, or radium 223 dichloride - a treatment option for people with symptomatic bone metastases who have already had docetaxel or cannot have it. NICE said: "Clinical trial evidence showed that people taking olaparib have more time before their disease gets worse, and live longer overall, than people having retreatment with abiraterone or enzalutamide. However, retreatment with abiraterone or enzalutamide is not considered effective and is not standard care in the NHS.

More than 100 NHS clinicians have urged the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to change its decision - declining recommendation of romosozumab, the first new osteoporosis medication for over a decade. In a joint letter published on January 2, the clinicians warned of the consequences of barring access to the drug to those who suffer the bone-weakening disease. The joint letter, led by the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), raised concern over the scarcity of the drug pipeline for osteoporosis and lack of public funding for new research. It quoted recent government research that showed the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) invested less than £1 million in osteoporosis research in 2020-21, against the £4.6 billion per year cost to the NHS of fractures. Craig Jones, chief executive of the Royal Osteoporosis Society said: "We're calling on NICE and the applicant company to get back round the table and work with us to ensure equal access to this important new treatment.

The NHS claims that it's been able to save taxpayers £1.2 billion in just three years by procuring hundreds of hospital medicines at a better price. The adoption of cheaper versions of a single drug - adalimumab - which is used to treat more than 45,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis, has accounted for about one third of the savings. After the exclusive patent on the drug - originally known as its brand name Humira - expired in 2018, the NHS struck cost-saving deals to bulk-buy generic versions, which have the same quality, safety and efficacy of a branded one. Since then, tens of millions of pounds have been saved by buying cheaper generic versions of other medicines for conditions ranging from severe skin infections to aggressive blood cancers. Four in five medicines prescribed in the NHS are now non-branded, helping the NHS to achieve significant savings while ensuring the continuity of high-quality patient care. NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: "Smart deals by the NHS mean patients are getting the best medicines and taxpayers are getting best value.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has supported the Department of Health and Social Care's recommendation to 'aggressively expedite and roll out new medicines' that have gone through trials. The ABPI welcomes government report on cancer services in England and the opportunity it provides to refocus how the pharmaceutical industry, NHS and government can improve the lives of cancer patients. David Watson, executive director, Patient Access at the ABPI, said: "Despite progress, UK patients still have much worse five-year survival rates for many cancers than those in similar nations. Early diagnosis and fast and equal access to the latest treatments for all patients is key to reversing poor trends in NHS cancer care. "We are pleased that the report reflects concerns about variable access to cancer medicines. We support the Committee's recommendations to 'aggressively expedite and roll out new medicines' that have gone through trials and to ensure regulatory innovation results in swift uptake in the UK.

Data crunched by an online pharmacy delivery company paints a concerning picture for the pharmacy sector in England. Gophr's 'Prescription For Pressure' initiative reveals a challenging time for the sector and is supported by separate analysis by the BBC showing that the number of pharmacies in England is at its lowest since 2010. In addition, new powers being introduced for pharmacists to prescribe common prescription drugs and perform routine tests create an even greater workload for already overstretched pharmacists. Gophr's data reveals that: * Each pharmacy in England serves an average of 6,078 people. * In 2022, pharmacists dispensed 1.043 billion prescriptions, 26.3 million more than 2021. * A single pharmacy in England dispensed 248 prescriptions a day on average in 2022. Based on the most up-to-date statistics from the Office for National Statistics, NHS England and Statista, Gophr's calculations show that pharmacists have around 116 seconds to dispense a prescription, which is less time than the 180 seconds it takes to make a Quarter Pounder at McDonald's.

Community pharmacy bodies have said that the current crippling financial pressures and severe staff shortages will limit the sector from fully supporting the new health secretary's ambition to improve patient care in England. Thérèse Coffey announced her plans on Thursday (September 22) which would be looking to reduce the country's reliance on general practice by expanding the range of services available from community pharmacies and allowing pharmacists more "prescribing powers". "Pharmacists will be able to manage and supply more medicines, without a prescription from a GP. We will look to go further on enabling pharmacists with more prescribing powers and making more simple diagnostic tests available in community pharmacy," she said in her foreword to Our Plan for Patients. However, the National Pharmacy Association has lamented that the plan stops short of promising any fresh funding for community pharmacies to deliver patient care and develop clinical services. NPA vice-chair, Nick Kaye, said: "The life is being choked out of independent pharmacy businesses by the continuation of a fundamentally under-resourced contract in England.

Research and development (R&D) in liquid biopsy is increasingly being funded by both public and private sectors due to its promising features such as early detection of cancer tumour, new lesion characterisation and identification of cancer drug target.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has explained MPs on instability that puts operational pressures on pharmacies, financial pressures on businesses at a Parliamentary drop-in event held on Monday (10 July). The association has been in Parliament today alongside patient representatives and others to highlight our ongoing concerns about medicines supply to MPs. It said: "Medicines supply remains a critical issue for community pharmacies with disruption causing problems both accessing medicines and procuring them cost effectively." In CPE's recent sector polling, community pharmacy owners rated medicines supply instability as being the most severe pressure facing their businesses. This echoed the results of CPE's Pressures Survey which found 97% of pharmacy owners survey are facing significant increases in wholesaler and medicine supply issues, with 71% saying this was leading to delays in prescriptions being issued. During the Parliamentary drop-in event, CPE talked MPs through the issues and set out what it believe needs to happen to resolve them, calling for- Reform of Serious Shortage Protocols; Allowing generic substitution; An overhaul of the concessions system; and a strategic Government review of medicine supply and pricing with a shift to focusing on how to improve the functioning of the supply chain rather than solely on the drive to depress prices and margins.