PJ, 15 November 2014, Vol 293, No 7836

UK medicines regulator appoints Michael Rawlins as chairman

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has appointed Michael Rawlins as its chairman from 1 December 2014.…

Improving antimicrobial stewardship

Improve your practice and slow the increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance that already cost around 25,000 deaths across Europe each year.…

Useful text for those working in critical care

‘Handbook of drugs in intensive care, an A-Z guide 5th edition’ by Henry Paw and Rob Shulman.…

Family to take civil action after dispensing error death

Relatives of a woman who died after a dispensing error are to take civil action, the family’s lawyers have confirmed.…

Ensuring medicines safety and managing risk as a Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance

Derek Woodcock is a Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance and works as a consultant for a variety of pharmaceutical companies. Here, he explains why pharmacovigilance does not have to be seen as the department of “bad news”.…

Drug firms must price cancer drugs fairly, says charity

‘Inflated’ prices set by drug companies for breast cancer treatments are creating a barrier that no regulatory system can overcome, a cancer charity argues.…

Genes influence response to statins, research finds

Four genes are responsible for about 5% of the variation in an individual’s response to statin treatment, research suggests.…

Holden steps down as National Pharmacy Association chief

Mike Holden is stepping down as chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association after four years, it was announced on 31 October 2014.…

Growth at the heart of new GPhC strategy

The General Pharmaceutical Council has published a new strategy with a focus on improving the quality of the pharmacy profession and outcomes for patients.…

Sloppy science should not be tolerated

Theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli had strong views about sloppy science, writes Andrew Haynes.…