There is no sign of a surge of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Britain so far, the chief of the UK Health Security Agency said on Tuesday, adding that there was no rise in the proportion of tests with a quirk that distinguishes it from Delta.
Jenny Harries said there were five confirmed Omicron cases in England and 10 "highly likely" cases, but that was not a sign of an increase in "S-gene target failure" in PCR tests in Britain, which is a feature of Omicron.
"Right across the country we watch for… S-gene target failure, which is a sort of proxy measure," Harries told BBC radio. Cases with S-gene target failure can then be prioritised for full genomic sequencing.
New mask mandates and other measures aimed at curbing the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant came into England today, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson eyes an expanded booster programme to help increase protection against Covid-19.
From Tuesday morning (November 30), face masks are compulsory on transport and in shops, banks and hair salons.
All international travellers must take a PCR test by the end of the second day after they arrive, and self-isolate until they get their result. That is in addition to restrictions on arrivals from 10 southern African countries, who have to enter hotel quarantine.
Britain has reported 11 cases of the Omicron variant so far, and while the government says this number will rise, it says it is important to slow its spread until more is known about the variant's transmissibility and impact on vaccines.
Health secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday (December 6) there is now community transmission of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across regions of England but it is too early to say if this will "knock us off our road to recovery".
Defending the introduction of stricter rules to slow the spread of the virus, Javid told parliament that the government was "leaving nothing to chance" while scientists assessed the variant, which was first reported in South Africa last month.
Javid said there are now 261 Omicron cases in England, 71 in Scotland and four in Wales - a total of 336.
"This includes cases with no links to international travel, so we can conclude there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England," Javid said.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said on Monday no further restrictions were currently needed to deal with the Omicron variant, but refused to rule out imposing such measures before Christmas.
Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has asked the government and the NHS to give more support to all community pharmacies as they gear up for "an extremely challenging winter period."
During talks with NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) last week, PSNC highlighted that contractors are already under pressure because of workforce crisis, capacity issues and escalated staffing costs.
all these factors could pose a bigger challenge during the busy winter season, it said.
Though PSNC supported the government's aim on booster vaccinations and approval of more pharmacy sites, it expressed concerns over the impact of the vaccination drive on all community pharmacies.
To ease the pressure on pharmacies, the negotiator has sought additional support through regulatory measures, the removal of administrative burdens and changes
to the current Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS).
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) today decided to convene a new group, involving all the key stakeholders, focused on assurance of practice post-registration.
The decision in today's (9 December) council meeting follows the recommendation of a working group chaired by council member and pharmacist Aamer Safdar on the role of the regulator in post-registration education and training.
The new group will be tasked with articulating a set of guiding principles where patient safety is the overarching priority, after carrying out a horizon scanning exercise to pull together an understanding of the system wide approach currently in place.
The working group noted that the wider approach, in relation to regulation of post-registration practice and not simply education and training, may require the GPhC reviewing and developing its own control measures, and involving patients and the public in the next stages of work.
Reviewing the work on online pharmacy services, the council meeting supported the regulator's plans to continue to require pharmacy websites to be arranged so that a person cannot choose a prescription only medicine and its quantity before there has been an appropriate consultation with a prescriber.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)'s diagnostic advisory committee has recommended the use of HM-JACKarc or OC-Sensor quantitative faecal
immunochemical tests (FIT) in a draft guidance release for consultation on Wednesday (5 July).
Under existing NICE guidance, FIT was already offered to some people presenting to primary care with symptoms suggestive of colorectal cancer, while others were
immediately referred on the suspected cancer pathway.
The new draft guidance will now see everyone receive a FIT.
A sample is sent in the post to a laboratory where the amount of blood in the faeces is measured. The results are usually available within a week and people with
10 or more micrograms of haemoglobin in their faeces should then be referred for further investigation.
Further assessment using colonoscopy, or CT colonography, is required to diagnose cancer.
The tests cost between £4 and £5 per sample, and can correctly identify about 9 out of 10 people with colorectal cancer.
The committee agreed it is important that GPs can refer people for colonoscopy without a positive FIT result if they think it is necessary and where symptoms persist.
The institute believes that the recommendation of the tests should reduce the number of unnecessary colonoscopies, thus freeing up appointments for more non-urgent
referrals. This should lead to 50% fewer referrals for urgent colonoscopies being made by GPs in primary care settings each year.
Deviating from the initial schedule to kick off the flu and Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in October, the NHS England has announced that the autumn
vaccination drive will commence sooner than expected in England, starting on September 11. This decision was taken as a precaution in response to a new Covid-19
variant.
The precautionary measure is being taken as the Department of Health and Social Care and the UK Health Security Agency examined the variant BA.2.86, which was first
detected in the UK on Friday, August 18, 2023, the NHSE said on Aug. 30.
While NHS England had previously announced that vaccinations for both NHS programmes would begin on October 2 for residents of older adult care homes, appointments
for other eligible groups were scheduled for the following week, starting on October 7. This decision prompted community pharmacy leaders to denounce the delayed
start of the flu service as 'unacceptable'.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a class 2 medicines recall for Sabril 500 mg film-coated tablets & Sabril 500 mg
granules for oral solution.
Sanofi UK has recalled the batches of Sabril tablets and Sabril granules as a precautionary measure due to the detection of traces of tiapride in the batches of the
source material of the manufacturer for vigabatrin.
Sabril (vigabatrin) is indicated for adjunctive treatment of focal seizures with or without secondary generalisation not satisfactorily controlled with other
antiepileptics (under expert supervision) and monotherapy in the treatment of infantile spasms (West's syndrome).
All patients are advised not to discontinue Sabril tablets or Sabril granules without consulting with their prescriber. The risks of suddenly stopping medication
for seizures/epilepsy is higher than the potential risk presented by the presence of tiapride.
Sanofi UK have confirmed to DHSC that no other batches are impacted, and other stock remains available.
Those of us who work in community pharmacy know there is a workforce crisis created in large measure by PCNs actively recruiting pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians from our sector. It is welcome, if long overdue, that this has now been officially acknowledged in a report commissioned by the English Health Secretary.
PCN hiring 'exacerbates pharmacist shortage' says DH-commissioned report, which states such recruitment has "on occasion exacerbated the problem of a general
shortage of pharmacists" which has compounded "the problem of community pharmacy closures."
We have been telling the government this for years only to be told "problem? What problem?"- but now that Steve Barclay has his own official report sitting on his
desk, he and NHSE cannot continue in denial mode. The facts are there for all to see. Time to act. No more dithering, delay or indifference. You asked if there was
a problem and you have been told there is.
In the absence of a holistic workforce strategy and cross-sector career pathways, PCNs poaching from community pharmacy is a zero sum game adding nothing to
improving patient care.
Adults who are overweight or obese and have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes are at a higher risk of developing severe health issues, according to authors of
a recent study.
Experts. however, disagree on the best dietary regimens and supportive measures to suggest.
The latest study was published in the journal 'The Annals of Family Medicine'.
In the findings, researchers used a 2×2 diet-by-support factorial design to randomise 94 adults with the aforementioned conditions, contrasting a very
low-carbohydrate (VLC) or ketogenic diet with a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet.
They also determined the outcomes of interventions that included and excluded additional support practices like mindful eating, effective emotion regulation,
social support, and cooking instruction.
Using intent-to-treat analyses, the VLC diet led to greater improvement in estimated mean systolic blood pressure (SBP; -9.8 mmHg vs. -5.2 mmHg, P =.046), greater
improvement in glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c; -.4 per cent vs. -.1 per cent, P = 0.034), and greater improvement in weight (-19.14 lbs vs. -10.33 lbs, P = 0.0003),
compared to the DASH diet.
The addition of extra support did not have a statistically significant effect on outcomes.
Pharmanovia, a global pharmaceutical company has announced increased targets to divert 40 per cent of its air shipments to sea in 2023, and 75 per cent by the
end of 2028.
It has made the pledge as it revealed the significant progress made towards achieving its ambitious science-backed ESG initiatives in its new Sustainability Report.
Its industry-leading air-to-sea pilot scheme, which focused on its Spain-to-Australia freight route, cut an estimated 470,000kg in potential CO2 emissions in
2022 - reducing Scope 3 upstream transport emissions by 18 per cent.
This initiative demonstrates Pharmanovia's role as an industry leader on carbon reduction and follows a recent report which stated just 16 of 500 pharmaceutical
companies measured their entire Scope 3 emissions.
The new Sustainability Report reveals that the Scope 2 emissions decreasing by 13 per cent in 2022, due to lower direct electricity demand within the office space.
The company's packaging audit seeing a 52 per cent increase in the percentage of products packed with at least one fully recyclable component, up from 12% in 2021
to 64 per cent in 2022
Strong progress in an initiative which saw Pharmanovia set ESG goals all employees across its global offices as part of annual performance awards. Employees achieved
a 98 per cent completion rate of the compliance training, including ESG modules
Consumer health company Haleon, formerly known as GSK, claims that pain's emotional and life impact has grown by nearly 25 per cent in the past decade.
The company has launched a campaign #ListenToPain to personalise patients' pain management through a series of practical tools and resources.
The campaign was introduced on 28 September which focused on enabling the HCPs to maximise their time with patients and understand their pain experience - providing
them with an effective treatment plan.
The new data has been obtained through the fifth edition of the Haleon Pain Index (HPI). This social study measured the impact of individuals' everyday lives,
their
health, their feelings, their emotions, motivations and behaviours.
They have spoken to more than 87,000 people around the world since their first edition in 2014 - HPI 1 (The State of Pain), which later progressed over the years
from HPI 2 (Impact of Pain) in 2017, then HPI 3 (Managing Pain) in 2018, to HPI 4 (Treatment Journey), and finally HPI 5 (Pain and Inclusivity) in 2023.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) will be hosting a Parliamentary drop-in event for MPs on Monday (14 November).
"The event will last for roughly two hours, during which MPs will have the opportunity to drop-in and have their blood pressure measured by a fully qualified
pharmacist," said the committee.
It added: "This event will be a great opportunity to talk to MPs from across the political spectrum about the incredible work pharmacies are doing up and down the
country, to demonstrate the Hypertension Case-Finding Service and to discuss the frontline role pharmacists play in delivering vital services and free, expert
advice."
The other community pharmacy bodies, including the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
(RPS) will also be present on the day, providing the sector with a valuable chance to present a united front on the big issues facing contractors throughout the
country.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has launched a four point plan at its parliamentary drop-in event for MPs and peers hosted on Tuesday
(15 November).
The event lasted for two hours, during which MPs had the opportunity to drop-in and have their blood pressure measured by pharmacists with experience of working on
the front-line and were briefed on the urgent need for action to address the pressures on the sector.
Outline of the four-point plan:
Resolve the funding squeeze: Community pharmacy needs an immediate funding uplift to prevent large-scale pharmacy closures, as well as emergency business relief to
get through this winter.
Tackle regulatory and other burdens: Pharmacies must be protected from medicines market shocks, supported to help them weather the workforce crisis, helped to free
up capacity and freed from red tape that does not enhance patient care.
Help pharmacies to expand their role in primary care: Pharmacies could do more to support the delivery of primary care for example through offering clinical services
for long-term conditions - like hypertension, diabetes and respiratory disease, supporting people to adopt healthier lifestyles and prevent the development of
long-term conditions, medicines optimisation, and a much wider variety of NHS vaccinations.
The widely-held concept that levels of "good" cholesterol in the blood can indicate heart disease risk is not equally true for Blacks and whites, and the measure
itself may be of less value than previously thought, according to a U.S. study published on Monday (November 21).
Various types of cholesterol are thought to have either healthy or unhealthy effects.
Low levels of so-called "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were linked with higher odds for developing cardiac problems in the long-term study - but
only in white participants, the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found.
In contradiction to what has generally been assumed, low HDL levels did not confer any higher risk of heart disease in Black people, researchers said. Among white
people, however, those with HDL levels below 40 milligrams per deciliter had a 22% higher risk for coronary heart disease compared with those whose HDL levels were
higher.
High HDL levels (above 60 mg/dL), which are thought to be protective, were not linked with lower coronary heart disease risks in either race, researchers found.
Japanese pharmaceutical firm Eisai Co plans to seek full approval of its experimental Alzheimer's drug lecanemab in the United States, Europe and Japan armed
with data showing it can slow the brain-wasting disease for people with early symptoms, potentially getting the treatment to patients next year.
It remains unclear how widely the drug developed with U.S. biotech Biogen Inc will be used due to uncertainty over insurance coverage, including the U.S.
government's Medicare plan for people age 65 and over, potential side effects and cost.
One Wall Street analyst told Reuters news agency that he is not counting on measurable sales until 2024. Several estimated lecanemab may be priced at around $20,000
per year.
"Most people who this (drug) would apply to are on Medicare, and most private payers look to Medicare as they make their own (coverage) decisions. So there's a
massive roadblock in the way of all who could benefit from this treatment," said Robert Egge, Alzheimer's Association chief public policy officer.
Eisai confirmed on Tuesday (November 30) that lecanemab - an antibody designed to remove sticky deposits of a protein called amyloid beta from the brain - reduced
the rate of cognitive decline on a clinical dementia scale by 27% compared to a placebo. It also gave new details on side effects including a dangerous type of brain
swelling and brain bleeding.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA)'s Health Education Foundation (HEF) has funded a major study that aimed to test the SPUR tool and evaluate how effective
it was at measuring medicines adherence.
The study has been published in the British Medical Journal Open.
Dr Joshua Wells, a fourth year PhD candidate at Kingston University, who was awarded the NPA bursary, was the lead researcher for the SPUR UK study, under the
guidance of Professor Reem Kayyali.
Created by Observia, a health research group, SPUR is a self-assessment questionnaire which helps to detect a patient's risk of medicine non-adherence and aims to
accurately articulate the reasons for health behaviour.
As well as funding from HEF, the study was made possible via a partnership with Kingston University and Kingston Hospital.
HEF chair of Trustees, Dr Ian Cubbin, said: "We are delighted that NPA's Health Education Foundation has played a part in such an important study. This research could
lead ultimately to a far more personalised, tailored approach to medicines optimisation - recognising that people's medicines behaviour can be highly individual to
them."
Gut microbiome is the combined genetic material (genomes) of the microorganisms residing in the gut. The term microbiota is used to describe the community of
microorganisms themselves.
Lower microbiota diversity indicates a microbial imbalance within the gut, and is often found in people with autoimmune diseases, obesity and cardiometabolic
conditions.
Studies have found that while there is a heritable component to gut microbiota, the role of environmental factors such as diet, drugs and anthropometric measures
play a key role in one's microbiota composition. Pharmacy teams are best placed to advise their patients on ways to improve their gut heath.
Popular media suggests the key to solving all health problems is to nurture the gut through drinking kombucha and avoiding gluten. But how true is this really? Ask
your patients to consider implementing the following five tips, informed by scientific literature, into their diet and lifestyle, to improve the microbiota diversity.
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 Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has asked the pharmacies and wholesalers to stop supplying and quarantine all remaining stock
of Dr Reddy's Laboratories (UK)'s Lacidipine 4 mg Film-Coated tablets.
The company has recalled two batches of Lacidipine 4 mg Film-Coated tablets as a precautionary measure due to the presence of an unknown solvent-like odour.
MHRA said: "The tablets are normally odourless. However, in the affected batches, a solvent-like odour is present when the individual blisters are opened.
Additionally, some patient complaints have noted that the tablets have an unusual taste. The investigation to determine the root cause and to identify and quantify
the odour is ongoing.
"The issue is confined to batches B2202043 and B2202044 only. Other batches of Lacidipine 4 mg Film-Coated tablets marketed by Dr Reddy's Laboratories (UK) are not
affected."