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Kelso Pharma, the growing UK based specialty pharma business, has announced its first product launch with the release to the UK prescription medicines market of Acepiro (Acetylcysteine) 600mg effervescent tablets. Acepiro 600 mg effervescent tablets are indicated in adults only and are being made available to hospital and community prescribers in 20 and 30 day packs, with the 30 day pack consistent with monthly prescribing. The NHS List Price for the 30 day pack is £4.40, with the 20 day pack priced at £3.65. Acepiro is being launched by Stirling Anglian Pharmaceuticals (SAP), which was acquired by Kelso Pharma one year ago, providing a new UK platform and springboard for future sales growth for the business. The new product complements SAP's existing portfolio of three medicines: CosmoCol (macrogol 3350 plus electrolytes) powder for oral solution - an osmotic laxative indicated for the treatment of chronic constipation and faecal impaction. Stirlescent (naproxen) 250mg effervescent tablets - containing naproxen, which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).

A Company Chemists' Association (CCA) analysis has shown that 'Pharmacy First' service in England could free up 30m+ GP appointments each year. It has urged the Government and NHS to be even 'bolder in their ambition and go further and faster'. The recent 'Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care' announced a 'Pharmacy First' service for England, mirroring similar approaches in Scotland and Wales. The association has estimated that with the added capability to supply non-prescription medicines and prescribe additional prescription-only medicines, an ambitious 'Pharmacy First' service could free up 30m+ GP appointments annually. Harnessing community pharmacies to deliver care for minor health conditions will effectively create 11,000 urgent care centres in England.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) have issued a joint enforcement notice about the 'illegal' advertising of Kenalog injections on digital platforms. The notice warns all organisations offering Kenalog as a 'hay fever treatment' to stop advertising it in any of their social media or website advertising. "Kenalog is a prescription-only medicine (POM), which must not be directly or indirectly advertised to the public. Kenalog is not licensed for the treatment of hay fever in the UK, although it is offered by some beauty and aesthetics clinics, under the personal responsibility of an individual prescriber, and advertised widely on social media," said MHRA. "Now, advertisers must ensure that all references to Kenalog in the text, images or emojis on social media are removed, as well as commonly-used descriptive phrases for the jab such as 'hay fever injection' or hay fever jab' or any account names, testimonials or memes by 29 August 2022." After this date, the CAP's compliance team will remove non-compliant ads using targeted software and those who continue to promote it may be referred to the MHRA for further enforcement action.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have been tasked to evaluate the impact, safety and effectiveness of the Pharmacy First service, which was launched across England in January 2024. They have been awarded £2.4million by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to generate evidence on the new service that allows pharmacies to provide advice and treatment for seven common conditions without the need for a GP appointment. After consultation, if necessary, a community pharmacist can supply some prescription-only medicines to treat earache, sore throat, sinusitis, impetigo, shingles, infected insect bites or uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women. The LSHTM researcher team will be working together with experts at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Universities of Oxford, Manchester and Nottingham on the project. Dr Rebecca Glover, assistant professor in Antimicrobial Resistance at LSHTM, who will lead the three-year project, said they will evaluate "Pharmacy First's impact on GPs and the wider NHS, pharmacy services and patients."

The recent data released by the NHS England revealed that in 2022/23 nearly 86 million antidepressant items were prescribed to around 8.6 million identified patients. According to the statistic published on 'Medicines Used in Mental Health' of the 5 British National Formulary (BNF) sections, 4 had increases in items and identified patients across 2022/23. The only BNF section to decrease since 2021/22 was hypnotics and anxiolytics. Items fell by 2% to 14 million and identified patients fell by 2 per cent to 1.9 million in 2022/23 The data also revealed that Prescribing of Central Nervous System (CNS) stimulants and drugs for ADHD increased by 32 per cent in adults over 18 and 12 per cent in children 17 and under. "2022/23 was the first time that more adult patients have been prescribed drugs from this section than child patients, in the time period covered by these statistics," said the report.

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.

The much-awaited Pharmacy First service has been launched in England, enabling patients to get treatment for seven common conditions from their community pharmacists without needing to see a GP. According to NHS England, a total of 10,265 community pharmacies, which is equivalent to more than nine in ten community pharmacies in the country, will be offering the ground-breaking initiative. The new scheme allows highly trained pharmacists to give advice and prescription-only medicines for minor ailments including sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bite, impetigo, shingles, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women (under the age of 65). With this major expansion of pharmacy services, the NHS is aiming to free up 10 million GP appointments a year while giving the public more choice in where and how they access care.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has removed a pharmacist from its register who black-marketed 'zolpidem' along with another pharmacist between 2015 and 2016. Dean Zainool Dookhan, a pharmacist first registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain on 18 October 2004 and whose registration was later transferred to the General Pharmaceutical Council under registration number 2059808, was jailed last year for exporting 20,000 packets of zolpidem to the Caribbean. While hearing the case on 24-25 May, GPhC's Fitness to Practise Committee stated that "removal of the Registrant's name from the register is the appropriate and proportionate response to his convictions." "The public interest includes protecting the public, maintaining public confidence in the profession, and maintaining proper standards of behaviour. The Committee is entitled to give greater weight to the public interest than the Registrant's own interest in remaining on the register." "The Committee recognises the sanction has a punitive effect in that the Registrant's ability to practise and earn an income as a pharmacist and 28 his professional reputation will be curtailed; it will be five years before he can seek restoration to the register. However, that is the price he must pay for failing to comply with the fundamental tenets of his profession."