Health news round-up: new biosimilars, vaccine effectiveness and supporting patients aging with HIV

The autumn budget has dominated news coverage this week and The Pharmaceutical Journal has reported on its impact on pharmacy, focusing on rising employment costs for high street pharmacies, frozen prescription charges for patients in England and the introduction of 250 “neighbourhood health centres”. Pharmacy must be “embedded” in the creation of neighbourhood health teams, Amandeep Doll, director for England at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) told MPs this week, while lead paediatric palliative care pharmacists should be part of local plans, the RPS has recommended in its updated palliative care policy. And our latest investigation into pharmacist workforce has found three-quarters of hospital trusts in Great Britain do not have enough pharmacists to meet neonatal staffing standards.

In clinical news, exclusive data obtained by The Pharmaceutical Journal has revealed the full list of England’s prescribing pathfinder sites and their clinical areas; Mounjaro (tirzepatide; Eli Lilly) health benefits have been found to reverse one year after stopping the drug; and NHS England has commissioned a study on the effects of puberty blockers.

Read on for more health news you may have missed this week.

Which denosumab biosimilar should I use?

Denosumab 60mg biosimilars may be launched following loss of patent exclusivity anticipated in November 2025, the Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) has suggested. It has published a discussion of all the indications, formulations, supporting evidence and differences between denosumab 60mg biosimilar products licensed in the UK in November 2025.

Over 50s with HIV need faster diagnosis, reduced stigma and better healthcare support

More than half of people accessing specialist HIV care in England are now aged over 50 years, but primary care, care homes and other health and social care settings are unprepared to meet their needs, according to a recent report from Terrence Higgins Trust and KPMG UK. Improvements in training, consistency of care and reducing stigma are needed to support people aging with HIV, the report recommends.

It comes as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has released a report on 2024 HIV data, which found half of all people living with HIV in the World Health Organization (WHO) European region are diagnosed late — 47% of which are in the west of the region, which includes the UK. Older people (aged 50 years +) were more likely to be diagnosed late, while early one-third (29.6%) of all HIV diagnoses across Europe were reported among people born outside of the reporting country. In the UK, reported transmission from injecting drug use is low, and more than half of cases were reported to be from heterosexual contact.

Contact tracing guidance on Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever

In other global health news, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published updated contact tracing guidance on Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, following the confirmation of an outbreak in Namibia this week.

New PGD templates for MMRV and MMR

This week, a patient group direction (PGD) template has been published to support the national MMRV vaccination programme, which will begin from 1 January 2026. Both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will be able to provide the vaccine on the NHS, if they meet training and other requirements. An updated version of the MMR vaccine PGD has also been published.

HPV vaccines are safe and effective, but uptake is falling

Two new Cochrane reviews have shown human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are effective in preventing cervical cancer and pre-cancerous changes and are associated with no negative long-term health impacts. “An important finding was that the commonly reported side effects of the vaccine, often discussed on social media, were found to hold no evidence of a real link to vaccination,” noted Nicholas Henschke, head of Cochrane Response and co-lead author of one of the reviews. Despite proven efficacy and safety, update is falling. “Unfortunately, year on year, we have seen a drop in the number of people taking up vaccination,” commented professor Emma Crosbie, honorary consultant in gynaecological oncology at Saint Mary’s Hospital, part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Nicotine electronic cigarettes increase quit rates

Another Cochrane review published this week found nicotine electronic cigarettes (EC) increased quit rates, with an additional three quitters per 100 people when using EC, compared with nicotine replacement therapy. The reviewers suggested nicotine EC products may also increase quit rates when compared with non-nicotine EC products.

Antibiotic in rivers associated with greenhouse gas emissions

And finally, a common antibiotic — sulfamethoxazole — in wastewater has been found to disrupt the conversion of nitrous oxide to harmless nitrogen gas, potentially contributing to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, according to a study published in Biocontaminant. Understanding these microbial interactions is essential for predicting the ecological consequences of rising antibiotic pollution in freshwater and marine environments, researchers from Shenyang Agricultural University, China, concluded.