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Senior doctors have called for a crackdown on the sale of home genetic testing kits, following a surge in the number of patients being wrongly informed they are carrying serious genetic mutations.

The price concession for Atorvastatin 80mg has been increased to £3.91 from the previously set £3.45 for prescriptions dispensed in July, the Community Pharmacy England has said. The Department of Health and Social Care additionally introduced a concession price of £3.38 for Atorvastatin 20mg. "In July, our Dispensing and Supply Team experienced an unusually high influx of reports from pharmacies struggling to acquire Atorvastatin 80mg tablets at the listed Drug Tariff price," said CPE. CPE requested a price concession early in the month. However, after extended discussions, an agreement on the price wasn't reached. Consequently, on July 31st, the DHSC imposed a concession of £3.45. Addressing enduring pharmacy concerns over the pricing, CPE intensified advocacy with DHSC. This endeavour resulted in the revision of the Atorvastatin 80mg tablet concession price to £3.91 for prescriptions submitted and dispensed in July. According to CPE, this adjusted price sufficiently covers costs as reported by the majority of pharmacy owners. However, DHSC has refrained from modifying concessionary prices for the other two requested lines by CPE. DHSC communicated that their team's data collection for July, employing real-time sales and volume data, was incongruent with the adjustment of these prices, CPE further said.

Following a period of prolonged uncertainty, the Competition and Markets Authority has given its approval to Bestway Healthcare's acquisition of Lexon UK and Asurex. The company expects the transactions to be finalised in the upcoming months. In April, Bestway, the owner of Well Pharmacy, acquired Asurex Limited and Lexon UK Holdings, along with the 44-community pharmacy chain Norchem Group, known as Knights Pharmacy. However, in June, the CMA raised competition-related concerns about the transaction, citing worries that the acquisition could lead to a significant decrease in competition among retail pharmacies across 12 areas in Liverpool and the northeastern region of England. The CMA had asked undertakings from Bestway Healthcare due to competition concerns affecting specific branches of Knights Pharmacy within the acquisition. In July, the CMA indicated its readiness to approve the deal, contingent upon Bestway's completion of the required divestments. According to Bestway Healthcare, This matter has been successfully resolved, as Bestway Healthcare has consented to the sale of seven pharmacies in Liverpool and the northeastern region of England. "The impacted Well pharmacies are situated in Seaham, Bishop Auckland, Kenton, High Howden, Stockton, Moreton, and Pensby. Buyers for all seven branches have been identified and contracts have been signed."

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) has warned of the significant implications for future supply as a result of the crippling VPAS rate. The warning comes after the association's judicial review into the Government's decision to bar it from being a full part of the negotiations for the next five-year VPAS period was dismissed. The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access (VPAS) is an agreement between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). The scheme aims to limit increases in spending on branded medicines to no more than 2% per year via a rebate system which is charged on companies' sales revenues. Two years ago, the rate was 5.1%, but in 2023 it has soared to 26.5%. All biosimilars and a proportion of the generics market falls into the scheme.

A community pharmacist who supplied a drug addict with "under the counter drugs" has been jailed for 18 months. Dushyant Patel, 67, a London pharmacist with more than 40 years' experience, had supplied class C drugs to a drug user in Norwich for months in 2020. Police identified Patel as a suspect four months after the death of drug user, Alisha Siddiqi, whose body was found at a property in Colossus Way, Costessey, in August 2020. An initial post-mortem examination was inconclusive, but toxicology results later showed she died from an overdose of prescription medication. An analysis of her phone revealed that she had frequent communication with Patel between January and August 2020. Class C drugs sold without prescription There was also communication regarding transactions relating to the sale of prescription drugs including class C drugs, without a prescription, namely Zolpidem and Zopiclone. Patel was identified as a suspect and later charged with drugs offences. He was jailed at Norwich Crown Court in December after a trial in August when he was found guilty of two counts of being concerned in supplying a controlled drug between March and August 2020.

Perrigo, one of the world's largest providers of self-care products has appointed Ronald van Workum as Sales Director Germany, Customer Strategy & Implementation DACH Cluster. van Workum will continue to drive the successful integration of HRA Pharma into the Perrigo network, with a focus on well-known brands such as Abtei, Compeed and Granu Fink. He most recently held the position of Head of Key Account Management for Perrigo in Europe, based in the Netherlands. Prior to joining Perrigo he worked for Procter & Gamble in several countries, including Singapore, and in various functions, including: Market Strategy Planning Manager for the Gillette brand; and in Europe as multifunctional Team Leader Emerging Channels. The company also announced Tobias Geiger has been promoted from his role as Finance Director of the Perrigo DACH Cluster, which he held since April 2020, to General Manager of the Perrigo DACH Cluster. During this time, he successfully supported the implementation and stabilisation of the DACH cluster. He also led several business optimisations with his teams, such as the implementation of SAP in Switzerland, process digitalisation and the creation of a DACH Finance Business Partner Model. Before joining Perrigo, Geiger worked for Sanofi for more than 10 years in various leadership positions in DACH and in Latin America.

In a mutual agreement with the STADA board, Roger Scarlett-Smith has stepped down from his role as head of UK. The company has assigned the responsibility of UK operation to Rudolf Bär with current responsibilities as cluster head for Mid-Sized European Markets. Scarlett-Smith joined STADA in October 2018 to lead the UK operation upon the retirement of Dieno George. Prior to this, he had enjoyed an illustrious career in the Consumer Healthcare sector, largely with GlaxoSmithKline, for which he held positions including as President North America, President EMEA and Head of Global Categories. Under his leadership, the STADA UK business has grown sales by 50 per cent and profitability has more than doubled. He has reshaped the business to improve efficiency. There has been a marked acceleration of product innovation including key line extensions to the Zoflora disinfectant range as well as the introduction of a salmeterol and fluticasone inhaler in the Rx respiratory sector. Meanwhile, T+R has developed a fine reputation regionally, being voted number 1 regional company last year and winning many national industry awards.

Britain's competition watchdog has fined pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Flynn £63 million and £6.7 million respectively for allegedly breaking competition law and illegally profiting from the sale of an anti-epilepsy drug. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the two companies colluded to sell phenytoin sodium capsules, previously known as Epanutin, at "unfairly high prices" for over four over years between 2012 and 2016. The annual costs of the capsules for the NHS increased from £2 million in 2012 to approximately £50 million the following year. CMA has accused Pfizer of charging, over four years, prices between 780 per cent and 1,600 per cent higher than what was fixed previously for the medicine used to prevent life-threatening epileptic seizures. Pfizer supplied the drug to Flynn, which then sold the capsules on to wholesalers and pharmacies at a price between 2,300 per cent and 2,600 per cent higher than the prices previously charged by Pfizer.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DSHC) has launched a consultation to seek views on changes to pharmacy supervision, which is being considered as part of the Primary Care Recovery Plan. Plans set out in the consultation include making better use of pharmacies, improving access to primary care and maximising the contribution of pharmacy professionals across healthcare. In the consultation, the DSHC has set out proposals to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and The Human Medicines Regulations 2012. The proposals aim to allow pharmacists to authorise registered pharmacy technicians to carry out the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of pharmacy and prescription only medicines in their absence. Currently, these services can only be carried out by, or under the supervision of, a pharmacist.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has said that multi-buy deals on paracetamol violate the existing voluntary sales guidelines. The professional body is urging the government to pass legislation that prohibits retailers from making such offers on medicines for pain relief. They have also sent letters to MP Maria Caulfield who is the Minister for Mental Health and Women's Health. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is requesting to take action on the legislation at the earliest. The concern raised is that multi-buy offers such as 'buy one get one free' can encourage people to buy and store excess packs, which may lead to accidental or impulsive overdose.

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.

Amid media speculations that a large pharmacy multiple was putting all its stores at risk of closure, PSNC supremo Janet Morrison said the sector was in crisis and in danger of a significant collapse. Addressing delegates via a video link at Sigma Pharmaceutical's 13th Annual Community Pharmacy Conference held last week (March 4 -9) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, she said while "a lot of consolidation or sales" would continue, a lot of the smaller, independently-owned community pharmacies - which had to work harder and harder to make ends meet - were just "hanging on in there". "But I don't know how much longer people can go on," she said, adding that the risk of actual closure was rendering the remaining pharmacies so fragile that "they may not be able to pick up the slack of many thousands of patients" who would need repeat prescriptions. "The disruption is frightful and awful. We have got 53 per cent of the population on repeat prescriptions, so that matters." Her comment on the opening day of the conference was a sober reminder that the sector - which relies heavily on income from prescriptions - couldn't afford to "carry on with the current format of a contract and the current amount of money" it was paid to deliver numerous tasks which have been heaped on it to share the burden of a crippling NHS.

The UK government has decided to ban disposable vapes to tackle the rise in youth vaping and protect children's health, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Sunday (28 January 2024) during a visit to a school. Official figures revealed that the number of children using vapes has tripled in the past three years, with nine per cent of 11 - to 15-year-olds now affected by this rising trend. Disposable vapes are believed to be mainly driving the worrisome rise in youth vaping, with the number of 11- to 17-year-old vapers using disposables estimated to have increased by almost ninefold in the last two years. Sunak said: "As any parent or teacher knows, one of the most worrying trends at the moment is the rise in vaping among children, and so we must act before it becomes endemic. "The long-term impacts of vaping are unknown and the nicotine within them can be highly addictive, so while vaping can be a useful tool to help smokers quit, marketing vapes to children is not acceptable."

The General Pharmaceutical Council's Investigating Committee took decisive action on March 25, 2024, by issuing a warning to Dilsha Kiran Shah, registration number: 2049787, for her conduct as Superintendent Pharmacist of Jhoots Healthcare Ltd. Miss Shah's failure to uphold the Medicines Act 1968, specifically in ensuring the proper management of medicinal products, triggered this warning. The Act mandates supervision in "keeping, preparing, and dispensing medicinal products other than those on a general sale list." Moreover, pharmacies are inspected on five principles - Governance, Staff, Premises, Services including medicines management, and Equipment and facilities to meet the right standards. The alarm was initially raised in August 2021 when a Jhoots Healthcare Ltd pharmacy branch under Miss Shah's supervision operated without a responsible pharmacist. Despite explicit instructions, pharmacy staff were allegedly instructed to proceed without proper supervision, raising grave concerns regarding patient safety.

Indian multinational pharmaceutical company, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories has made its entry into the UK consumer health market with the launch of an over-the-counter allergy medication. Histallay (Fexofenadine Hydrochloride 120 mg tablets) is the company's first general sale list (GSL) product introduced in the UK market. Previously classified as a Prescription Only Medicine (POM), Dr. Reddy's Fexofenadine 120 mg is now available without prescription, under the brand name 'Histallay'. This allows people with allergic seasonal rhinitis (hay fever) to get direct access to the product via retail outlets such as pharmacies and supermarkets in the UK.

The government's formal consultation on pharmacy supervision, which closes today (29 February), leaves important questions unanswered, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) proposals are to: enable pharmacists to authorise pharmacy technicians to carry out, or supervise others carrying out, the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of medicines enable pharmacists to authorise any member of the pharmacy team to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in the absence of a pharmacist allow pharmacy technicians to take primary responsibility for the preparation, assembly and dispensing of medicinal products in hospital aseptic facilities In its formal response to the consultation, the NPA acknowledged that modernisation of the regulations is long overdue, including enabling non-pharmacist members of the pharmacy team to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions.

Parents are advised to check their children's hair often as cases of head lice infestations are increasing in the UK amid rising temperatures. Superdrug has reported a significant 121 per cent surge in sales of its head lice treatment spray, according to Wales Online. The high-street chemist explains that head lice are particularly prevalent during this time of year as the warmer weather triggers infestations. Head lice and nits (head lice eggs) are very common in young children and are picked up by head-to-head contact. The pesky insects make your head feel itchy. The National Health Service (NHS) recommends taking immediate action against head lice as soon as they are detected. It is not necessary to see a GP for head lice treatment.

Pharmacies across Northern Ireland are in financial turmoil, reporting that they are dispensing prescription medicines at a loss due to inadequate reimbursement from the Department of Health (DoH). This crisis has led to the closure of almost a dozen pharmacies over the past 18 months, with many others struggling to stay open. Siobhan McNulty, who runs Melvin Pharmacy in Garrison, County Fermanagh, described the dire situation. "We're dispensing medicines at a loss," she said. "The reimbursement rates don't match the cost of the drugs, and we're left to cover the gap." McNulty relies on sales of non-pharmaceutical products to keep her business running.

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