News | Medicines safety

News

Regulators issue warning over prescription-only weight-loss drug advertisements

An enforcement notice has warned that prohibitions include non paid-for content on social media, sponsored searches on search engines and influencer marketing.…

Published: 16 April 2025

News

Regulator warns pharmacists to ensure patient safety when selling unregulated products

In a letter to pharmacy technicians and owners, the General Pharmaceutical Council has warned that non-medicinal and unlicensed products being supplied by pharmacies “have potentially caused serious harm”.…

Published: 15 April 2025

News

‘Serious gap’ in safe access to medicines for people with sensory impairment, report finds

In a report, the patient safety commissioner for England recommends a funding review to support additional resources to improve access to medicines for those with sensory impairments.…

Published: 9 April 2025

News

Patients in emergency departments should be supported to self-administer time-critical medicines, says royal college

Advice produced with the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association urges that emergency departments should hold self-administered time-critical medicines to the same monitoring and governance oversight standards as non self-administered medicines.…

Published: 7 April 2025

News

Genetic testing could prevent three-quarters of avoidable side effects of some medicines, study suggests

Researchers found that patients experiencing adverse drug reactions to treatments for psychiatric disorders and cardiovascular problems could benefit the most from personalised prescribing with pharmacogenomics.…

Published: 1 April 2025

News

Pharmacists asked to assist in switching patients from Promixin by end of April 2025

A national patient safety alert advises that Colicym 1-million-unit power for nebuliser solution unit dose vials should be considered as an alternative treatment.…

Published: 21 March 2025

News

Only 15% of NHS trusts meet emergency department pharmacy support standards, investigation finds

Exclusive: Freedom of information requests showed that only 15 of 98 NHS trusts in England met Royal College of Emergency Medicine and UK Clinical Pharmacy Association recommendations on pharmacy staffing levels.…

Published: 19 March 2025

Feature

The journey towards dedicated pharmacy support for all emergency departments

NHS trusts in England have started taking the first steps towards a dedicated pharmacy service for emergency departments, but there is a long way to go before each trust has the recommended support in place.…

Published: 19 March 2025

News

More than 500 people hospitalised following use of weight-loss drugs, says health minister

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency confirmed that more than 20,000 Yellow Card reports of suspected reactions in association with GLP-1 RAs indicated for weight management have been recorded, as of 31 January 2025.…

Published: 12 March 2025

News

Greener inhalers could make up to 10% of NHS net zero emissions cuts, report concludes

A report published by the Office of Health Economics said that a switch to the use of carbon minimal pressurised metered dose inhalers could cut NHS carbon emissions by more than 600,000 tonnes per year.…

Published: 11 March 2025