Andrei David/Alamy Stock Photo
The meningitis outbreak in Kent has dominated health news this week, following the deaths of two young people. The Pharmaceutical Journal has shared latest updates for clinicians and investigated supply issues around private vaccinations.
Meanwhile, ongoing concerns about safeguards for clinicians who choose not to participate in assisted dying came to a head this week as the Scottish parliament rejected the bill.
In Wales, data revealed that the number of common ailments service consultations in pharmacies increased by more than one-third (34%) in 2024/2025, compared with the previous year. Consultations for sore throat and tonsillitis, as well as for children, made up the largest number of consultations.
Read on for more health news you might have missed.
NICE to reconsider Alzheimer’s treatment
The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) will reconsider whether Alzheimer’s treatment donanemab could be made available on the NHS, following a successful appeal from manufacturer Eli Lilly. The company hopes NICE can use new flexibilities within its manual — such as using different methods to value health-related quality of life and considering costs that may fall on family members, friends or a partner — to reconsider funding the drug, it told The Pharmaceutical Journal.
Further reading
Retatrutide lowers blood sugar and weight in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Eli Lilly’s triple agonist retatrutide demonstrated significant reductions in HbA1C and weight when used as an adjunct to diet and exercise, according to topline results from a phase III TRANSCEND-T2D-1 trial.
Further reading
New kidney cancer guidelines
This week, NICE published its first guidelines on kidney cancer, which includes expanding the use of renal biopsies to confirm diagnoses earlier, reduce unnecessary surgery and improve outcomes for people with kidney cancer. Pembrolizumab is standard adjuvant therapy for high-risk renal cell carcinoma, while belzutifan is recommended with managed access through the Cancer Drugs Fund, as an option for treating von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) syndrome in adults who need treatment for VHL associated RCCs, central nervous system hemangioblastomas or pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, when localised procedures are unsuitable or undesirable.
Further reading
Romiplostim could combat chemotherapy side effects
Romiplostim “dramatically” improves the bone marrow’s ability to produce platelets so chemotherapy treatment can proceed as planned, results of a phase III study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest. The data show 84% of patients receiving romiplostim completed chemotherapy without dose modification, compared with 36% in the placebo group.
The findings of a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute revealed that in industry-sponsored trials, female patients had a 21% lower risk of death compared with male patients, yet a 12% higher risk of severe toxicities.
These sex-based differences were largely consistent across 12 advanced solid tumour types, as well as treatment modalities, including chemotherapy, targeted therapies and immunotherapy, suggesting they stem from underlying biological mechanisms, not just drug-specific effects, researchers said.
Further reading
Opioids and patient safety
Some 77 safety events relating to fentanyl patch fatalities were reported by coroners between 1997 and 2024, with adherence and usage (34%), administration (32%) and prescribing (6%) being the most common, according to a paper published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. A live dashboard of prevention of future deaths reports has been developed to monitor the issue.
The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group has developed resources to help community pharmacy teams manage patient safety risks when supplying methadone and other opioid treatment medicines over the Easter bank holidays.
Further reading
Smoking and nicotine use
Pharmacies in Leeds are set to supply smoking cessation medication under a patient group directive to address the local area’s lack of access to the drugs.
An automated tobacco treatment system integrated into routine paediatric care helped drive a 3.9% absolute increase in smoking cessation among mothers, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, found in a study published in Paediatrics.
Meanwhile, a father’s nicotine exposure can affect their offspring’s ability to process sugar and may contribute to diabetes risk, according to mouse research published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
