Health news round-up: rising flu cases, cheap cancer drugs and some good news for pharmacists

Amid ongoing conversations about pharmacy closures, funding, regulation and reputation, there’s some good news for pharmacists this week as tuberculosis treatment can be resumed following ‘significant improvement’ in antimicrobial supply.

Researchers have said that most medicines shortages are triggered in the early stages of the supply chain and require proactive rather than reactive management. As a result, researchers have called for better forecasting and a thorough stakeholder analysis to avoid future shortages.

Learn more about the role of pharmacists in industry in our latest Inside Jobs podcast, and read on for more clinical news you may have missed this week.

UK braced for long winter as flu cases hit a month early

It’s an “unusually early start of the influenza season”, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said, with cases three times higher than this time last year. Flu has hit the UK “more than a month earlier than usual”, and follows warnings of a difficult season in Australia and the declaration of a flu epidemic in Japan, which has closed schools. UK flu cases are particularly high among young people and children, which has prompted local NHS teams to set up “pop-up” half-term vaccination clinics in bowling alleys, football pitches, libraries and sports halls.

However, Olivier Picard, community pharmacist and chair of the National Pharmacy Association, complained: “Flu vaccines sitting in my fridge while the NHS pays for pop-up clinics… make it make sense!”

According to the UKHSA, compared with the equivalent week during the 2024/2025 flu season, flu vaccine uptake is higher for pregnant women and comparable for those aged 65 years and over, those aged under 65 years in clinical risk groups and those aged between 2 and 3 years.

Mpox vaccination urged as new cases suggest global community transmission

Also this week, the UKHSA urged gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men to come forward for mpox vaccination. The UKHSA added that there have been “small numbers of locally acquired cases of clade Ib mpox in the USA, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal” which “have no connection to countries with known clade Ib mpox transmission” and suggests that “there is now community transmission of clade Ib mpox globally”.

Does new generic prostate cancer treatment do more to help patients or NHS budgets?

Prostate cancer treatment abiraterone has been re-evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), with the availability of lower-cost generic versions leading to NHS approval of the drug. However, charity Prostate Cancer UK said it needs to go further and make the treatment available at an earlier stage, which could halve the number of men who go on to die from the disease.

Amy Rylance, assistant director of health improvement at Prostate Cancer UK, commented: “With this approval, the NHS has shown it can cut through the red tape and make effective, affordable treatments available when it chooses to. It must now do the same to help these men, who simply cannot afford to wait any longer.”

NICE spending on medicine has been in the spotlight recently, with pharma companies arguing for the NHS cost-effectiveness threshold to be increased; however, government and think tanks have pushed back, saying that prices need to be kept low to protect spending elsewhere.

We want to hear from you about women’s health

A large Swedish population study published in JAMA Oncology on 30 October 2025 has confirmed that the use of hormonal contraceptives is associated with a slight increase in the relative risk of breast cancer, “but the magnitude of the absolute risk is very small — around one additional case per 7,000–8,000 users per year”, said Ramón Salazar, head of medical oncology at the Catalan Institute of Oncology and associate professor of medicine at the University of Barcelona.

“In women with personal or family risk factors, a combined or levonorgestrel formulation may be preferred, without sacrificing the overall benefits of hormonal contraception,” he suggests.

For peri- and post- menopausal women in the UK, the number of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions dispensed has increased by 370% in the past ten years, latest data from the NHS Business Services Authority have shown. And the government has announced that dedicated menopause questions will be added to the NHS Health Check assessment.

With that in mind, The Pharmaceutical Journal wants to hear from you. What would you like to know about menopause and HRT?

Let us know, so that we can develop learning resources to help you support your patients.