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AstraZeneca said its antibody cocktail against Covid-19 would - unlike its vaccine - be priced commercially as it negotiates supply contracts with governments around the globe. "We are looking at a commercial pricing strategy. That is part of our negotiations with governments," Iskra Reic, Astra's executive vice president for vaccines and immune therapies, said in a media call on Thursday. She added that the group's main objective was to make the shot affordable and broadly available.

Switzerland is experiencing medicine shortages due to supply chain issues linked to COVID lockdowns in China and war in Europe, the country's pharmacists association said. "We have the biggest problems with children's medications, especially fever-reducing syrup," Enea Martinelli from pharmaSuisse told Swiss broadcaster SRF. "There are also shortages of blood pressure medications, psychiatric medications and Parkinson's medications," he said.

The Pharmacists Defence Association (PDA) has expressed its keenness to work with the NHS nationally and at the ICB level to discuss how the pharmacist workforce can most effectively be part of the multidisciplinary team, after the publication of Long-awaited NHS England workforce plan. Welcoming its publication Alison Jones, PDA Director of Policy said: "It gives greater clarity around the future direction and strategy for professional development, training, and opportunities for those currently working in the health service or considering their future career. There is a strong emphasis on further development of the clinical role of pharmacists to support better patient care. "However, this is a plan that will take years, indeed decades to come to fruition and its success will need to be underpinned by significant funding for its entire life course. Workplace pressures, reductions in support staff, and a lack of protected learning time are matters of immediate concern for many PDA members, issues which are regularly highlighted through activities, such as the safer pharmacies survey.

NHS moves a step ahead towards its efforts to address covid-19 backlogs by opening a new 'planned care' hospital in Berkshire dedicated to non-emergency treatment. Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, part of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, will focus on cutting waits for routine care with staff prioritising patients who have been waiting longest, including for orthopaedic and ophthalmology services. The hospital houses six operating theatres, 48 inpatient beds and 22 day-case cubicles and provides surgical, diagnostic and outpatient care, and will treat patients across Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey. There will also be a range of outpatient services under the same roof including gynaecology, urology and cardiology services. These will be supported by services offering patients endoscopy, physiotherapy, phlebotomy and radiology checks and treatments.

Bambuterol 10mg tablet, used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is facing supply disruption as sole supplier of the medicine, Astra Zeneca, is discontinuing its production, according to an update by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The available stock of the medicine is expected to be exhausted by the end of June 2022. Meanwhile, other oral β2-agonists, which are the preferred route of administration, remain available, DHSC said.

In a long scripted overhaul of its business, GlaxoSmithKline spun off its consumer health business on Monday (July 18) in the biggest listing in Europe for more than a decade. The new company, Haleon, becomes the world's biggest standalone consumer health business, home to brands including Sensodyne toothpaste, pain relief drug Panadol and cold treatment Theraflu. Shares in Haleon started trading at 330 pence on Monday morning, giving the business a market valuation of around £30.5 billion - dashing high hopes for Haleon's much higher market valuation after GSK in January said it had rebuffed a £50 billion offer from Unilever on the basis it was too low. The major strategy shift by GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley to focus on the company's core pharmaceuticals business comes after she faced intense activist shareholder pressure over its delays in producing Covid jabs and treatments.

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has released a handbook today (February 23) on guidance for pharmacists on supporting self-care. The handbook, "Empowering self-care: A handbook for pharmacists", covers six areas of self-care - sore throat, gastrointestinal complaints, musculoskeletal pain, fever in children, sexual health and disinfection. Commenting on the release, Rúben Viegas, co-author of the handbook, said: Community pharmacists already help people in self-care by giving advice on non-prescription medicines, nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle choices, but this new resource from FIP offers added support for these professional services that demonstrate our profession's commitment to primary health care." The publication, also intended as an advocacy resource for FIP's member organisations, discusses latest trends and strategies in self-care and explores innovations adopted across several practice areas. It aims to provide pharmacists with concise guidance on coaching practices and person-centred approaches to promote self-care.

Clinical trials for BioNTech's cancer vaccines should start this year in Britain, marking an important step towards their possible sale on the open market, the German company's top executive Ugur Sahin told magazine Der Spiegel. BioNTech, known for its COVID vaccine with U.S. partner Pfizer, is currently deciding which types of cancer it wants to test its personalized cancer immunotherapies on and the locations where it will conduct the trials, Sahin said. The company wants these therapies, which are based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology similar to the one that underpins its COVID-19 vaccine, to soon become a regular treatment for cancer patients. "We believe that this should be possible for large amounts of patients before 2030," Sahin said.

Pharmanovia, the lifecycle management company has signed a licence and supply agreement with Aquestive Therapeutics for its patented diazepam buccal film formulation across the EU, UK, Switzerland, and Norway, as well as countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)- up to 48 markets in total. Aquestive Therapeutics has been granted tentative approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for its diazepam buccal film for the acute treatment of intermittent, stereotypic episodes of frequent seizure activity (i.e., seizure clusters, acute repetitive seizures) that are distinct from a patient's usual seizure pattern in patients with epilepsy 12 years of age and older. Pharmanovia will be responsible for seeking appropriate regulatory approval across EU and MENA. Pharmanovia CEO, James Burt commented: "Pharmanovia and Aquestive are aligned in our mission to find new and innovative ways to enhance and revitalise iconic medicines. We have extensive experience with diazepam through the Valium brand and, together with Aquestive's unique PharmFilm technology, we're intending to bring a novel alternative diazepam delivery option to caregivers and patients at a time of critical need."

An oral drug combination by Novartis showed promise in treating a subgroup of patients suffering from a common childhood brain cancer in a trial. In the mid-stage trial, 47 per cent of the patients that were given the two drugs Tafinlar and Mekinist saw their tumours shrink, far above a rate of 11 per cent in a comparative group of participants on standard chemotherapy, the drugmaker said on Monday, June 6. The participants, aged one to 17 years, were suffering from low-grade gliomas (LGG), the most common childhood brain cancer. The trial only included those who were found to have a mutation known as BRAF V600, a genetic contributor in about 15 per cent to 20 per cent of paediatric LGG cases. Among further results of the trial with 110 participants, the median time without disease progression was 20.1 months for those given the Novartis drug combo, compared to 7.4 months on chemotherapy. The new oral treatment candidate also caused less severe side effects than burdensome chemotherapy.

While thanking the provisionally registered pharmacists and their employers for supporting NHS services during the pandemic, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has asked the 63 eligible candidates to join the main register by January 31 to continue practicing. A total number of 4,799 provisionally-registered pharmacists have been on the provisional register since it was introduced in July 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which had affected the registration assessment schedule. As of Tuesday (January 18), 237 were still on the provisional register, of which 84 have begun the process to join the main register, 90 did not sat an assessment, while 63 eligible candidates are yet to start their application. The register enabled trainees who had completed their training to support NHS services and provide patient care effectively as provisionally-registered pharmacists, while they waited to sit the registration assessment. After providing three potential opportunities to trainees to sit the registration assessment - in March, July and November 2021, the provisional register will close on January 31, 2022.

Prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday (January 19) that restrictions re-imposed in England last month would be lifted by from next Thursday (January 27). In the latest development, the government has decided to end the guidance on working from home, asking employers to make adequate arrangements to return safely to work. From the start of next Thursday, mandatory certification based on vaccines and tests will end, however, organisations can still choose to use the NHS Covid Pass voluntarily. Besides, the legal mandate to wear face masks will go away from next week. Making a statement to the House of Commons on Covid-19, he said that infection levels are falling in England mainly because of the country's "extraordinary booster campaign". He noted more than 36 million Covid-19 booster jabs had been delivered, with over 90 percent of over-60s now given a third dose. "Our scientists believe it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally," Johnson added, while cautioning "the pandemic is not over". "I encourage everyone across the country to continue with all the cautious behaviours that we know help to keep each everybody safe."

In a significant development, the British Medical Association's (BMA) consultants committee has voted to accept the government's offer on pay for senior doctors in England, along with proposed reforms to the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration (DDRB). This decision follows a prolonged dispute between consultants and the government, which spanned over a year, involving unprecedented industrial actions. Committee Chair Vishal Sharma described the agreement as "the end of the beginning" in consultants' endeavors to restore their pay levels to those of 2008. Stressing the importance of the review body's independence in averting future pay disputes, Sharma emphasized the imperative role of utilizing this autonomy effectively. A staggering 83% of consultants participating in the three-week referendum voted in favor of accepting the offer, signaling a widespread endorsement of the agreement within the profession.

"Our main concerns are that the use of what they call an asynchronous supply, where the prescriber neither sees nor talks to the patient at the time they issue the prescription, does lay itself open to perhaps people getting hold of medication that they shouldn't," the Head of Policy, PDA said. The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) engages in a critical conversation on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, shedding light on the online prescribing of weight loss drugs and advocating for safer practices. The PDA's spokesperson, Head of Policy Alima Batchelor, emphasised the importance of adhering to professional guidelines to ensure patient safety and mitigate regulatory concerns. During the feature, the PDA highlighted the complexities and risks associated with online supply chains, stressing the necessity for direct clinical consultations and pharmacist involvement in medication management. ""There are guidelines and advice about verification within the DiCE guidance, but it doesn't go quite far enough for us. We are concerned when patients decline to allow the online prescriber to advise their GP of what they're taking," Batchelor highlighted.