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NHS England has urged the pharmacy owners to continue to voluntarily submit New Medicine Service (NMS) quarterly summary data to the NHS Business Services
Authority (NHSBSA) for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2022/23 (January to March 2023).
Community Pharmacy England have agreed with NHS England that the quarterly returns will continue to be on a voluntary basis, with Q4 (January to March 2023) as the
second quarter to be reported.
It has thanked all the members that submitted NMS quarterly summary data for Quarter 3.
The mandatory requirement to submit this data has been suspended since 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"NHS England wants to continue collection of the quarterly returns to provide baseline data to support a long-term evaluation that will be conducted as part of
ongoing work to expand the scope of NMS," said Community Pharmacy England.
Voluntary submissions can be made via the NHSBSA website, where an updated reporting spreadsheet is also available for head offices to use who are able to submit
data on behalf of multiple pharmacies.
The Professional Records Standards Body (PRSB), which develops information standards for health and social care records, has appointed Professor Reecha
Sofat as the new Chair.
She will assume the role at the end of October 2024, succeeding Professor Maureen Baker CBE, who will step down after seven years as Chair of the PRSB.
A Clinical Pharmacologist, Professor Sofat has held many leadership roles across the NHS, academia and scientific societies.
Professor Sofat is Breckenridge Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool. She practices general internal medicine and is also an Associate
Director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre (DSC) which is led by Health Data Research UK (HDRUK).
With a passion for data science and extensive clinical and research insights, Professor Sofat is focused on embedding research into routine health and social care.
She said: "I am passionate about using the rich health data that is already collected across NHS and social care to better understand the causes and consequences
of disease and improve health outcomes.
British drugmaker GSK said on Tuesday (December 7) its antibody-based Covid-19 therapy with US partner Vir Biotechnology is effective against all mutations of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, citing new data from early-stage studies.
The data, yet to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, shows that the companies' treatment, sotrovimab, is effective against all 37 identified mutations to date in the spike protein, GSK said in a statement.
Last week, another pre-clinical data showed that the drug had worked against key mutations of the Omicron variant. Sotrovimab is designed to latch on to the spike
protein on the surface of the coronavirus, but Omicron has been found to have an unusually high number of mutations on that protein.
"These pre-clinical data demonstrate the potential for our monoclonal antibody to be effective against the latest variant, Omicron, plus all other variants of concern defined to date by the WHO," GSK chief scientific officer Hal Barron said.
The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) has urged the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to collate the data on actively enrolled on an
approved course or qualification for Pharmacy Technicians of commencement of training.
In a letter from Nicola Stockmann, Vice President APTUK to the GPhC to encourage the collection of data for Pre-Registration Training Pharmacy Technicians,
Stockmann said: "We value the GPHC data for Pharmacy Technician registrants to track the growth and diversity of the Pharmacy Technician profession.
With ongoing inclusive pharmacy practice priorities, APTUK has an organisational pledge to continue this work of all themes through actions. The demographics
of the Pharmacy Technician workforce continue to have a majority of white British registrants and identifying as female; the high-level data collated which is
currently available on the GPHC website does not capture those who are actively enrolled on an approved course or qualification for Pharmacy Technicians."
GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi said on Wednesday (December 15) they expect data from late-stage clinical trials of its booster dose of their Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the first quarter, instead of this year, another delay for the potential shot.
The news came as two companies said preliminary data from trials showed the single-dose booster provided strong immune responses. They added that they need more
time to test the booster on more people who have not been infected by the virus before they can submit data to regulators.
The Phase III trial for the recombinant adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine recruited most participants in the third quarter, coinciding with a significant increase in the number of people infected globally due to the Delta variant, it said.
"To provide the necessary data to regulatory authorities for the booster vaccine submission, the trial will continue to accrue the number of events needed for analysis, with results expected in Q1, 2022."
No safety concerns were identified.
This is the latest delay for the vaccine's development, putting the companies further behind rivals in the race for Covid-19 shots.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Thursday (30th November) announced the launch of a new suicide surveillance system, bolstering its
efforts to tackle emerging methods of suicide and clamp down on those seeking to sell dangerous products to vulnerable people.
For now, the DHSC will work with the National Police Chiefs' Council to gather near to real-time data from across the country on deaths by suspected suicide
by gender, age group and method.
The data will be obtained from individual police forces in England and the government will get it within three months of a suspected suicide, the DHSC said in
its release.
Previously, the only suicide data available at a national level was provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), but it could take up to 2 years for
the official ONS data to come through.
As we take look back over the past year and reflect on what we have achieved, it's also important that we look ahead to new challenges and opportunities that
may arise in 2023. We have seen remarkable innovation across the industry in 2022, from big break throughs in treatment and improvements to patient outcomes, to how
the industry is working with big data and technology. But it's fair to say that these achievements came paired with just as many challenges including a continued
talent shortage, hangovers from the pandemic, increasing pressures to innovate and ongoing macroeconomic challenges.
As we head into 2023, I expect these existing challenges to continue alongside new ones, but I also anticipate more opportunities to present themselves. At
Pharamanovia, we predict that the key trends set to catalyse the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in 2023 include break through innovations, technology,
big data, sustainability, ongoing policy changes and a shift in investment due to inflation.
Utilising big data and tech
Technology has been recognised as one of the industry's biggest tools for many years, and I don't expect to see the pace of how we use technology in healthcare and
pharma to slow down any time soon. In 2023, I expect that we will see further automation in the way we work, with an increase in digital engagement and healthcare
providers leveraging remote access further.
Community Pharmacy England has published new guidance to help members to complete the 2022/23 Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPTK).
The Toolkit is used to make a pharmacy's information governance (IG) declaration and the deadline is Friday (30 June).
Community Pharmacy England collaborated with the NHS DSPTK team to keep the workload associated with Toolkit completion manageable whilst maintaining the
appropriate data security protections.
Key differences in this year's Toolkit include- improvements to the Toolkit's layout; improvements to the question wording and pharmacy-specific tips; and the
Toolkit displays the answers submitted by the pharmacy in the previous submission for various questions, allowing pharmacy owners to simply confirm that the
information remains accurate and adjust this if necessary.
The NHS Parent Organisation Code (POC) headquarters (HQ) batch submission feature also continues to enable to allow pharmacy owners (that own three or more
pharmacies) to complete a single submission for all their premises.
Glenmark, a multinational pharmaceutical company, has partnered with AI data-driven supply chain management platform 7bridges.
Initially focusing on their European business, where they have operations in 15 markets, the supply chain and logistics function is a big focus area for this cost
reduction.
The partnership with 7bridges will allow Glenmark to baseline their supply chain data giving them visibility of data, cost and service performance across their
network of logistics service providers.
This exercise will identify areas where invoices from their logistics service providers are being incorrectly or overcharged. With automatic dispute raising,
savings will be quickly achieved. The platform will then enable Glenmark to benchmark their data, so they can compare the performance and cost of their LSPs to the
wider industry.
With Glenmark's global vision to emerge as a leading integrated research-based global pharmaceutical company, this investment in their supply chain will be integral
to achieving this.
The next step in the partnership will be to run simulations to optimise road freight services and 3PL operations, with the aim to then roll out globally.
Walgreens Boots Alliance has announced the launch of its new clinical trials business that aims to use patient data from its pharmacies to help drive up
recruitment in studies conducted by drugmakers.
With patient recruitment and enrollment remain key challenges in clinical trials, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said it can proactively
match diverse patient populations to trials across a range of disease areas based on race, gender, socioeconomic status and location with its patient reach and
access to an extensive foundation of pharmacy and patient-authorised clinical data.
The Boots owner also believes that by leveraging a tech-enabled approach to patient identification and creating a large registry of clinical trial participants,
the company will be able to reduce the time it takes to match eligible patients to clinical trials.
"Walgreens trusted community presence across the nation, combined with our enterprise-wide data and health capabilities, enables us to pioneer a comprehensive
solution that makes health options, including clinical trials, more accessible, convenient and equitable," said Ramita Tandon, chief clinical trials officer,
Walgreens.
On June 3, Synnovis, a pathology laboratory serving several NHS organisations in South East London, was targeted by a ransomware attack.
This cyber incident has disrupted vital blood testing services, crucial for a range of medical treatments, and raised significant concerns over data security.
NHS England confirmed that a cybercriminal group, Qilin, published data online, claiming it was stolen from Synnovis.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are currently working to authenticate the data and understand its contents.
A helpline has been established to address patient concerns, and NHS England urges patients to attend their appointments unless otherwise directed.
The attack has rendered some of the NHS's blood testing systems inoperable, causing substantial disruption to medical services in South East London.
Online pharmacy delivery partner Gophr has released new data showing a further drop in pharmacy numbers in England, resulting in a phenomenon they
call 'Pharmacy Deserts'.
Gophr highlighted that a significant portion of the population now lives in 'pharmacy deserts,' referring to the situation where an increasing number of urban
residents struggle to access a shrinking number of pharmacies.
For the second consecutive year, Gophr has analysed the data for its 'Prescription For Pressure' initiative.
The analysis showed that in 2023, pharmacists dispensed 1.18 billion prescriptions across England, marking an increase of 137 million compared to 2022.
The average number of prescriptions per pharmacy stands at 103,380, which equates to 283 a day.
As calculated by Gophr's data experts, pharmacy numbers decreased from 11,522 in 2022 to 11,414 in 2023, reflecting a decline of 108 compared to the previous
year's 'Prescription For Pressure'.
Gophr's data also showed that pharmacy deserts are most prominent in the South East (6,024 people per pharmacy), the East of England (5,327), the South West
(5,284), and the Midlands (4,975).
London, which ranked high last year, fell out of the top four, with 4,759 people per pharmacy.
The global company in information and data analytics, Elsevier launched a platform, PharmaPendium for drug candidates.
It is an effective tool that provides data including complete Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval packages for
drug development.
The platform is supported by the FDA, the Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) and the top 20 global pharma companies.
Olivier Barberan, Director of Translational Medicine Solutions spoke about how "improved access to highly relevant data plus predictive tools enhances regulatory
success, safeguarding the massive investments of pharma companies."
"Translation of preclinical research findings to humans in an efficient but safe way is one of the greatest challenges facing drug developers. We designed the
new PharmaPendium to solve this," he added.